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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN DRESSING; 

"a Study based on Material in the U. S, National Museum. 




f-^ 



OTIS T. MASON, 

Curator of the Department of Ethfiolo£f. 



^ 



From the Report of the National Museum, i8J 
(with plates LXI-XCIII). 



3-'89, pages 553-589 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OKFICE. 



189I. 




SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN DRESSING; 

A Study based on Material in the U. S. National Museum. 



OTIS T. MASON, 

Curator of the Department of Ethnology, 



From the Report of the National Miir.eum, tSSS-'Sg, pages 553-589 
(with plates LXI-XCIII). 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTINO OFFICE. 
I89I. 



OCT 15 1904 
Di of D. 



^ 



ABORIGINAL SKm-D?iESSING-A STUDY BASED ON MATERIAL IN THE 
U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Otis T. Mason, 
Curator of Ihr Department of Etlmology, 



fiJTKOTVTTCTT^W. 

Consider for a moment all the industries included within the word 
''leather." It involves everything* done to the hides ot animals from 
the moment they are taken off by the butcher until they are manufact- 
ured and ready to be sold to the consumer. It is important to enter 
somewhat into detail at this point before describing^ the skin-working- 
apparatus of the American aborigines, so as to bring into a congenital 
relationship the earliest and the latest manifestation of a great series of 
industries. 

The hides of cattle, sheep, goats, horses, dogs, and indeed of all do- 
mestic animals, the peltries of all wild animals that are of any use what- 
ever to man, are gathered up in a kind of civilized or wild harvest, as 
the case may be, by butchers, trappers, hunters, etc., and sent to the 
tannery or to the manipulators answering to this trade. 

Here commences a diversity of treatment, ending in the preparation 
of the hide with the hair remaining, by the furrier ; in the production 
of a soft leather by a process called tawing; or in the manufacture of 
true leather by the use of tannin in some form. We have done now 
with the secondary industries. 

The products of the leather factories are taken up and prepared for 
consnmption by harness-makers, shoemakers, glove-makers, satchel- 
makers, embossers, book-1>indeis, carriage-makc^rs, armorers, macliinists, 
musicalinstrnment-makers, taxidermists, and the like, and i)assed on 
through the great Briarens of commerce to those wlio will destroy 
them in use. 

After fully realizing this immense body of industries, we are in a 
position to appreciate one or two facts respecting savagery, to wit, liow 
largely the ])rodncts of tlie skins of animals' entered into the activity of 
primitive men ; how necessary it is, in order to reconstruct that civili- 
zation, to know what modern savages do with these same substances, 
and finally to collect the tools and observe the i)rocesses of aboriginal 

55:3 



554 JEEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

peoples working at this series of trades in order to know the life-history 
of a great human occupation. 

The first artisans of this craft were, for the most part, women, who, 
indeed, were the inventors and fostering i)atrons of all these simple 
arts which lay at the foundation of most of our modern peaceful indus- 
tries. . 

Let us follow the savage woman through her daily cares in order that 
we may comprehend the significance of her part in the play. The slain 
deer lying before her cave or brush shelter, or wigwam, shall be the 
point of departure in the inquiry. She strikes off a sharp flint flake 
for a knife. By that act she becomes the first cutler, the real founder 
of Sheffield. With this knife she carefully removes the skin, little 
dreaming that she is thereby making herself the patron saint of all sub- 
sequent butchers. She rolls up the hide, then dresses it with brains, 
smokes it, curries it, breaks it with implements of stone and bone, with 
much toil and sweat, until she establishes her reputation as the first 
currier and tanner. With fingers weary and worn, with needle of bone 
and thread of sinew, and scissors of flinty she cuts and makes the cloth- 
ing for her lord and her family j no sign is over the door, but within 
dwells the first tailor and dress-maker. From leather especially pre- 
pared she manufactures moccasins for her husband, which to his speed 
adds wings. Compared with the tardy progress of her barefooted man 
in the chase, they are indeed the winged sandals of Hermes, and she is the 
aboriginal St. Crispin. Out of little scraps of fur and feathers, supple- 
mented with bits of colored shell or stone or seeds, she dresses dolls for 
her children, makes head-dresses and toggery for the coming dance, 
adorns the walls of her squalid dwelling, creating at a single pass half 
a dozen modern industries— at once, toy-maker, milliner, modiste, 
hatter, upholsterer, and wall-decker. 

In order to comprehend the steps in the processes of the aboriginal 
tanner it may be serviceable to take a hurried glance through a mod- 
ern tannery. The methods of i3rocedure are somewhat as follows : 

(1) Salted or dried hides are soaked to make them pliable, washed, 
aad the extraneous flesh taken oft' with a flesher, an instrument like a 
drawing knife, sharp on one edge and dull and smooth on the other. 
Market hides are soaked in fresh water to remove blood and dirt. 

(2) The cleaned hides are then placed for a few days in a vat of lime 
water, which opens the pores, loosens the hair and combines with the 
oily matter in the hide to form a soaj). Putrefaction softening is also 
resorted to for removal of the hair. 

(3) The hides are then rubbed down with the smooth side of the 
flesher, the hair removed, and the skin made as pure and clean as it can 
be. They are at the same time rendered porous for the reception of the 
tannin. 

(4) They are then hung in a series of tan-pits, in which the water is 
more and more charged with tannic acid until the hide is converted 
into leather. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 555 

(5) After liusiug, the hides are subjected to scoiirino- in a machine 
by which, one man can go over a hundred a day. But the interesting 
part remains that Turkey-stone is still the only substance that will do 
the work. The whole operation at this point is no more than a savage 
process, except that machinery is used to move the stone. 

(6) The subsequent processes of drying, oiling, sweating, and press- 
ing are varied with the uses of the leather. The genius of the inventor 
has been invoked to substitute machinery for these simple hand proc- 
esses. After all the problems are the same, to remove the hair with- 
out impairing the hide, to introduce some antiseptic substance within 
the texture, to break up the fibrous tissue, and to render it pliable as 
possible. The subsequent processes of dyeing and preparing for spe- 
cial uses involve all the accretions of civilization, and produce the com- 
plexity of the more highly organized processes. 

ANIMALS WHOSE SKINS ARE UTILIZED BY AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 

It will help us in getting an adequate conception of the amount of 
work on peltries by our aborigines to consider for a moment the great 
number and variety of animals whose skins were necessary to their 
happiness. The mention of savage skin-working usually recalls the 
seal, elk, reindeer, musk-ox, buffalo, bear, deer, beaver, and fox, but a 
moment spent in examining the species of mammals which the fastidi- 
ous taste of an Esquimo woman demands before her wardrobe is com- 
pleted will enlarge one's knowledge. 

In order to properly estimate the industry under consideration, a 
list of the animals whose skins are known to have been used by our 
aborigines is appended. 

MAMMALS. 

Felidae. 

Lynx rufus (Giildenstadt). Bay lyux or wild cat. North America, 

Lynx baileyi Merriam. Plateau wild cat. Colorado, Utah, aud Arizona. 

Lynx canadensis (Geoff, and Desm.). Canada lynx. Northern North America. 

Felis yaguarundi Desm. Yagnarundi cat. North America, south of the United States, 

Fells concoJ or l^\nn. Puma or cougar. America generally. 

Felis pardalis Linn. Ocelot or tiger cat. Southwestern North America. 

Canidse. 

Canis lupus Linn., var. griseo-albus. Gray wolf. North America generally. 

Vulpesmacrotis MeTTiam. Big-eared fox. SouthernCalifornia. 

Vuljjes fulvus (Deam.), var. deciiasatus. Cross fox. Northern North America. 

Vulpes fulvus (Desm.), var. fulvus. Red fox. Northern North America. 

Vulpes fulvus (Desm.), var. arg'entatiis. Silver fox; black fox. Northern North 

America. 
Vulpes macrurus Baird. Prairie fox. Western States. 
Vulpes ve.lox (Say). Kit fox or swift fox. Western States. 
Vulpes lagopus (Linn.). Arctic fox. Alaska. 



y 



556 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

Urocyon rirginianns (Scbreber). Gray fox. United States generally. 
Urocyon virginianus (Schreher I, var. Uttoralis. Coast gray fox. Islands of the Cal- 
ifornia coast. 

Mustelidae. 

Mustel a pennanti Evxl. Fisher. Northern North America. 

Musida americanaTnTton. Pine martin or American sable. Northern United States. 

Musiela caurina Merriam. Washington Terr. 

Putoriiis erminea (JAiui.). Wliite weasel ; ermine. Northern United States. 

Putorius longicauda Bonaparte.. Long-tailed weasel. Western United States. 

Putorius viaon Rich. Mink. North America generally. 

Putorius nigripes AwA. anA'B&ch. Black-footed ferret. Western States (in holes of 

prairie dogs). 
Gulo lusciis Sabine. Wolverene or glutton. Northern North America. 
Taxidea americava Waterh. American badger. Western United States and Pacific 

slope. 
Mephitis mephitica (Shaw). Common sknnk. Eastern United States. 
Mepliitii estor Merriam. Arizona. 

Spilogale putorius (Lmn.). Little striped sknnk. Florida. 
Spilogaleinterrupta {Rn^n.). Little striped sknnk. Kansas. 
SpilogaJe ringens Merriam. Little striped skunk. Alabama. 
Spilogale indianola Merriam. Little striped sknnk. Tex.as. 
Spilogale lucasann Merriam. Little striped skunk. Lower California. 
Spilogale leueoparia Merriam. Little striped sknnk. Texas. 
Spilogale graciUsMexTxara. Little striped sknnk. Arizona. 
Spilogale saxatilis Merriam. Little striped skunk. Utah. 
Spilogale jilienaxMeTv'iAm. Little striped sknnk. California and Oregon. 
Conepatus mapurito (Gmelin). White-backed sknnk. Southwestern United States. 
Lutra, canadensis Sab. American otter. North America generally. 
Enhydra marina Fleming. Sea otter. Pacific coast of the United States. 

Ursid^. 

Ursus ho7'riMlis Ord. Grizzly bear. Western United States and Pacific slope. 
Ursus richardsoni Reid. Barren ground bear. Arctic America. 
Ursus amerioanus Pallas. Black bear. United States generally. 

Thalarctos maritimns CLiun.). White or polar bear. Northern America, Europe, and 
Asia. 

Procyonidae. ^ 

Procyon lotor (Linn.). Raccoon. United States generally. 

Otariidae. 

Callorhinns vrsimts (l-iiuu.). Fur seal. North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. 
Eumetopias steUeri (Lesson). Steller's sea lion. Pacific coast. 

Phocidae. 

Phoca vitul in a 'Ijinn. The common seal; harbor seal. North Atlantic and Pacific 

oceans, 
Phoca groenlandica (Fabr.). Harp seal. Arctic seas. 
Pliocafasciala Zimm. Banded or ribbon seal. Pacific coast, Arctic seas. 
Eriijnatlins iarhatus (O. Fabricius). Square-flipper seal. Arctic seas. 
Halichoerus gryphus (O. Fabricius). Gray seal. North Atlantic ocean. 
Cystopliora cristata (Erxl.). Hooded seal. North Atlantic ocean. 
Macrorhinus avgustirosiris Gill. Sea elephant ; elephant seal. Pacific coast. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 557 

Odobaeuidse. 

Odohwnus rostnarus (Linn.)- Atlantic wiilrus. North Atlantic. 
Odobmius obesus (lllijj.). Pacific walrus. North Pacific. 

Bovidae. 

Bison americanns (Guieliu). Bison, or American buffalo. The great prairie region 

(nearly extinct). 
Ovibos moachatus Biaiuville. Barren grounds of Arctic America. 
Mazama monlana (Orel). Rocky Mountain goat. Northern Rocky Mountain.s of the 

United States and British America. 
C^rts c«Mttdfc'«s(s Shaw. Bighorn; Rocky mountain sheep. Rocky Mountain region. 

Autilocapridae. 

Anlilocapra americana Ord. Proughorn antelope or cabree. Plains west of the Mis- 
souri from lower Rio Grande to the Saskatchewan. 

Cervidce. 

Alan inachlis {hum.). Moose. Northwestern United States to Alaska. 

RaiKjiJ'er tarandns (Liuu.), subspecies caribou. Woodland caribou. Arctic and sub- 
arctic America. 

liangifer iarandus (Liuu.), subsp. groeiilandicus. Barren-ground caribou. Arctic 
America. 

Cercus canadensis iir^l. American elk; wapiti. Northern North America. 

Cariains vinjinianns (Boddaert). Virginia deer. United States east of the Missouri. 

Cariacus macrotin (Say). Mule deer. Central North America. 

Cariacus columbiantis {Rich.). Cidumbia black-tailed deer. Pacific slope. 

Dicotylidae. 
Dicotyhs tujacu (Linn.). Peccary. Red River, Arkansas, and southward. 

Delphmidae. 

Delphinajiient-s calodon (Linn.). White fish or white whale. Arctic and subarctic 

seas (ascending large rivers). 
Monodon monocero!i hinu. Narwhal. Arctic seas. 
I'hocwna communis Lesson. Harbor porpoise; herring hog. North Atlantic and 

Pacific oceans. 
Phocwna dallii True. Dall's porpoise. Coast of Alaska. 
filohicephalufi scanimoni Cope. Blackfish. Pacific coast. 
CT)am2)U8 ijriseus {Cn\.). Grampus; cow-fish. North Atlantic. 
Orca gladiator {'La.cQiyhd.e). Killer whale. Pelagic. 

Physeteridae. 

Fhiiseter macrocephalns Linn. Sperm whale. Tropical and temjjerate seas. 

Talpidae. 

Scalops afjuaiici'.s (Liuu.), Common mole. United States geqerally. 



558 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889 

Sciuridae. 

Sciurus niger Linn.* Fox squirreL Eastern United. States, westward to the plains. 

Sciurus carolineusis Gmelin.* Gray sqnirrel. United States. 

Sciurus fossor Peale. California gray squirrel. Pacific slope. 

Sciurus aberti Woodhouse. Tuft-eared squirrel. Southern Colorado, New Mexico, 
and Arizona. 

Sciurus hudsonius F alias.'' Red squirrel ; Chickaree. North America generally. 

Taniias striatus (hinn.). Chipmunk. Eastern United States. 

Tamias quadrivittatus (Say).* Missouri striped squirrel. Pacific slope, eastward to 
Michigan. 

Tamias lateralis (Sa^y).* Say's striped squirrel. Rocky Mountain region, from Mex- 
ico northward. 

Spermophilus grammurus (Say).* California ground squirrel. Pacific coast to West- 
ern Texas and New Mexico. 

SpermopMlus harrisi Aud. and Bach. Harris's ground squirrel. The Great Basin. 

Spermophilus leucurus Merriam. Lower California. 

Spermophilns franklini (Sabine). Gray gopher. Northern Illinois, northward to the 
Saskatchewan. 

Slier mopMlus mohavensis Merriam. Mohave Desert. 

Spermophilus ?Ho?/is Kennicott. Short-tailed spermophile. Utah and Nevada, north- 
ward. 

SpermopMlus neglectns Merriam. Arizona. 

Spermophilus tereticaudus Aud. and Bach. Round-tailed ground squirrel. Arizona. 

Spermopliilus tridecemUneatus (Mitchell).* Striped gopher; prairie squirrel. The 
prairies of the United States. 

Spermophilus mexicanus (Erxleben). Mexican ground squirrel. Southwestern Texas 
and southern New Mexico, southeastward into Mexico. 

Spermophilus parryi Rich.* Parry's marmot. Northern parts of the continent, from 
the northern States to Hudson Bay aud Bering Strait. 

Spermophihis spilosoma Bennett.* Sonora ground squirrel. Eastern base of the Rocky 
Mountains north to western Wyoming. 

Spermophilus crypiospilotus Merriam. Desert spermophile. Arizona. 

Spermophilus canescens Merriam. Arizona. 

Spermophilus richardsoni (Sabine). Yellow ^pher. Plains of the Saskatchewan 
southward to the upper Missouri. 

Spermophilus townsendi Bach. Townsend's ground squirrel. Plains of the Columbia. 

Cynomys ludovicianus (Ord). Prairie dog. Great plains east of the Rocky Mountains. 

Cynomys gunnisoni Baird. Short-tailed prairie dog. Sonoran region. 

Cynomys leucurus Merriam. Wyoming. 

Arctomys monax Linn. Woodchuck. Eastern North America. 

Arctomys caligatus Eschscholtz. Hoary marmot. Rocky and Cascade Mountains 
from Washington northward. 

Arctomys flaviventer And. aud Bach. Yellow-bellied marmot. Rocky Mountains and 
westward to the Pacific coast. 

Arctomys dacotaMernam. Dakota woodchuck. Black Hills, Dakota. 

Haplodontidae . 

Haplodon leporina Rich. Sewellel ; Showtl. Pacific slope (especially about Puget 

Sound). 
Haplodon major Merriam. Sierra Nevada Showtl. Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

* The species of rodents marked with an asterisk rnn into numerous geographical 
races. Descriptions of most of these will be found in the works of Drs. Cones and 
J. A. Allen, especially in Monographs U. S. Geological Survey, Vol. xi ; also among the 
writings of Dr. C. H. Merriam, in North dllierican Fauna, piiblisjaed by the U. S. De- 
partme:!it of Agrjcultupe, 

\ 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 559 

Castoridae. 

Castor cancideiisis Kulil. Aniericau beaver. North America generally. 

Geomyidae. 

Geomys hursarim Rich, ronched or pocket gopher. Missouri to Minnesota and 

Nebraska. 
Geomys tuza (Ord). Florida salamander. Southeastern States. 
Geomys castanops ^?k\r^. Texas pouched gopher. Texas and New Mexico. 
Thomoviys talpoides {^\c\\.). California gopher. Northern and western North America. 
Thomotnys cluaius Cones. Small-footed pouched gopher. Rocky Mountains. 

Muridce. 

Cnnicucu} Its torqiiatus (Pallas). White Lemming. Arctic America. 
Myodes obensis Brants. Lemming. Arctic America. 

Fiber zibethicits Cuv. Mu.sk-rat. United States, except the southwestern portioDi 
and southern Florida. 

Hystricidse. 

Erethison dorsatus (Linn.) var. dorsatus. White-haired porcupine. Northern United 

States. 
Brethizoii dorsatus (Linn.) var. epixanthus. Yellow-haired porcupine. Pacific slope 

and upper Missouri regions. 

Leporidae. 

Lepus timidus* Fab., var. arcticus. Polar hare. Arctic and subarctic America. 
Lepus americanus, Erxl. American hare ; varying hare. Central United States to 

Alaska. 
Lepus campestris, Bach. Prairie hare. Central plains of North America. 
Lepus callotis Wagler. Jackass hare ; jack rabbit. Southwestern United States. 
Lepus texianusWatevh. Jack rabbit. Arizona. 
Lepus ealifornieus Gray. California hare. California. 

Lepus sylvaticus Bacli.* Gray rabbit; cotton-tail, LTnited States generally. 
Lepus arizoniw J. A. Allen. Arizona jack cotton-tail. 
Lepus bachmnni Waterhouse. Bachman's hare. Texas. 
Lepus trowbridy a Bah'i. Trowbridge's hare. California. 
Lepus jtalustris Bach. Marsh hare. Southeastern United States. 
Lepus aquaticus Bach. Water hare. Southern States. 

Lagomyidae. 

iMgomys pr'mceps Rich. Little chief hare or Pika. Rocky Mountain region from Col- 
orado and Utah northward to Alaska. 
Lagomys schisticeps Mevrlam. Sierra Nevada Pika. Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

Dasypodidae. 

Tatusia novemcinctus (Linn.). Armadillo. Southwestern United States and South- 
ward. 

Didelphidae. 

Didelphys marsupialis Linn. Opossum. United States generally. 

* The species of rodents marked with an asterisk run into numerous geographical 
races. Descriptions of most of these will be found in the works of Drs. Cones and 
J. A. Allen, especially in Monographs U. S. Geologieal Survey, "Vol. xi ; also among the 
writings of Dr. C. H. Merriam, in North American Fmna, published by the U. S. De-t 
pfjrtment of Agriculture. 



560 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

REPTILES. 

Crocodilidae. 

Crocodilus americanus Seba. Florida crocodile. Southern Florida. 
Alligator mississippiensis Daudiu. Alligator. Southeasteru North America, 

Testudiuidae. 

Testudo Carolina Linu. Florida gopher tortoise. Southeasteru North America. 

Bmydiae. 

Malaco-clemmi/s paliistris (Gmelin j. Diamoud-back terrapiu. Coast from New York to 

Texas. 
Fseudeinijs rugosa (Shaw). Red-bellied terrapiu. New Jersey to Virginia. 
Pseudevvys coHvinna (Liecoixte). Florida terrapiu. Southeasteru Uuited States. 

SKIN-DRESSING- AMONG THE ESKIMO. 

For the i^urpose of approaching this iudustry iu its earliest and least 
complex state a few quotations from early travelers and explorers are 
introduced. Crantz, in the history of Greenland (p. 167), speaks as 
follows : 

"For their 'kapitek,' or hairy seal-skin clothes, they scrape the seal- 
skin thin, lay it twenty-lour hours in the 'korbik,' or urine tub, to ex- 
tract the fat or oil, and theu distend it for drying with pegs on a green 
place. Afterwards, when they work the skin, it is si)riukled with 
urine, rubbed with pumice-stone, and supj)led by rubbing between the 
hands. 

" (2) The sole leather is soaked two or three days iu a urine tub; 
theu they pull off the loosened hair with a knife or with their teeth, lay 
it three days in fresh water, and so stretch it for drying. 

" (3) In tbe same manner they i)repare the ' eresak ' leather that they 
use for the legs of boots and the overleather of shoes, oidy that it is 
scraped very thin to make it pliable. Of this leather they also inake 
the sea-coats which the men draw over their other clothes to keep out 
the wet when they go to sea. It is true it grows as soft and wet as a 
dish-cloth by the salt water and rain, but it keeps the wet from the 
undergarments. 

" (4) In the same manner they dress the ' erogak,' of which they make 
their smooth black i)elts to wear on shore, only in working it they rub 
it between their hands; therefore it is not so stiff as the foregoing, but 
loses the property of holding out water and is not fit for boots and sea- 
coats. 

"(5) The boat-skins are selected out of the stoutest seal hides, from 
which the fat is not quite taken off. They roll them up and sit on them 
and let them lie in the sun covered with grass several weeks till the 
hair will come off. Then they lay them in the salt water for some days 
to soften them again, They draw the borders of the skins tight with 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 561 

their teeth, sew them together, and smear the seams and stitches with 
old seal blubber instead of pitch, that the water may not penetrate. 
But they must take care not to impair the graiu, for if they do the cor- 
roding sea-water will easily eat through the leather. 

'•(G) The remnants of this and the other sorts they shave thin, lay 
them upon the snow or hang them in the air to bleach them white, and 
if they intend to dye it red chew the leather with some bark of the 
roots of i)ine, which they gather up out of the sea, working it in with 
their teeth. 

(7) They soften tlje skin of the fowls about the head and then draw 
it off whole over the body. The processes of tanning. Hall says, are 
first to scrape the skin by an instrument called Sek-koon (by the 
Frobisher Bay Innuits, Teg-se-koon). (Plates LXX, LXXI.) 

Tbis instrument is about inches long, including the handle, and is 
made of a j^eculiar kind of whet or oil stone, or else of musk-ox or rein- 
deer bone or of sheet-iron. The second step is to dry the skins thor- 
oughly ; the third, to scrape again with the sek-koon, taking off every 
bit of the flesh ; the fourth, to wet the flesh side and wrap it up for 
thirty minutes, and then again scrape with the sek-koon, which last 
operation is followed by chewing the skin all over, and again scraping 
and cross scraping with the instrument. These laborious processes 
Hall describes as resulting "in the breaking of the skin, making the 
stiff hide soft, finished like the chamois skin." The whole work is often 
completed within an hour. (Narrative of the Second Expedition made 
by C. F. Hall, pp. 91, 92.) 

'' In Cumberland Sound," says Kumlien, " when a seal skin is about 
to be prepared for drying the blubber is first removed somewhat 
roughly, the skin then laid on a board, and with the woman's knife the 
membrane underneath the blubber is separated from the skin. The 
knife must be very shar[) to do this successfully. The operators always 
push the knife from them. It takes considerable experience to do the 
job well. When all the blubber is removed, which will take three or 
four hours of faithful work, the skin is taken outside, and by means of 
the feet is rolled and rubbed around in the snow for some time, and by 
this process they succeed in removing e^ery trace of grease from the 
hair. When thoroughly washed the skin is put upon the stretchers, if 
it be winter, to dry; these stretchers are merely four poles, which are 
lashed together at the corners, like a quilt-frame, the proper distance 
apart to suit the size of the skin. The skin is secured in place by seal- 
skin thongs i)assed through little slits along its edges and made fast to 
the poU's. 

When the skin is properly stretched upon the frame it is put above 
the lamps inside the snow-hut to dry. As the sun gets higher and 
begins to have some effect the skins are stretched, flesh side up, on 
the southern slopes of snow banks, and are secured by means of wooden 
or bone pegs about a foot in length. 
H. Mis. 224, pt. 2 36 



562 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

As the season advances and the snow melts they begin to stretch 
the skins upon the ground by means of the before-mentioned pegs. 
The skins are not allowed to rest upon the ground, but are raised a few 
inches to allow the air to circulate underneath. Skins dry very fast 
when exposed in this manner. 

The first days of spring are always a busy time with the Eskimo 
women. One thing is, they get more freshly-killed skins to prepare, 
and then they generally have a surplus stock of the winter's catch, 
which they could not take care of by the slow process of drying over 
the lamps in the huts during winter. The skins of the young in the 
white coats are dried in some considerable quantities, as it takes about 
fifteen to make a single suit of clothes, and many of them have double 
suits made from this material. They have no idea of any tan, and 
prepare the skins by merely rubbing them with their skin-scrapers. 

We insert a sketch of a very old skin-scraper, such as are now found 
only in the old graves (Plate lxx, Fig. 3). It is made of stone, with a 
wooden handle, which is fastened to the stone by means of a strip of 
whalebone. Another and a later pattern is made from the scapula of 
the reindeer. A better idea of its manufacture can be got from the 
sketch than by a description. ' Such scrapers are still in use, but serve 
as a sort of auxiliary to one made from a tin can, resembling a little 
scoop in shape and having a wooden handle. This is the style of scraper 
made at the present day, and is by far the most efiective instrument of 
the three. The manner of using these scrapers is to take the skin 
firmly in the left hand, to put the knee or foot upon the extreme 
part of it, holding it securely, while the scraper is worked with the 
right hand, i^ushing downward with some force. If the skins are 
very dry when they begin they are somewhat softened by rubbing with 
the hands, or even chewing the most stubborn parts. They continue 
using these tools upon a hide till it gains the desired pliability. All 
the work of stretching, drying, cleaning, washing, and softening the 
skins falls on the women. 

<' The skins of Phoca barhata are stretched on a frame like those of the 
netstick, but not until the hair has been removed. The cutting of the 
hair is one of the nastiest and most disgusting sights one can imagine. 
It generally falls to the lot of some old woman to do this. The skins are 
allowed to lie and become somewhat putrid, a portion of the blubber 
remaining on. The only tool used is the woman's knife before men- 
tioned. When about to clean one of these skins the squaw takes oft' 
her boots, stockings, and pantaloons, and tucking her feet under her 
body, lays this dirty, bloody, greasy, stinking skin on her bare thigh, 
the flesh side down. She then pushes the knife against the hair, cut- 
ting or rather shaving it oft'. As her hand becomes too oily to hold on 
to the skin, she puts her fingers into her mouth and thus cleans them. 
When properly cleaned, it is dried in the manner already spoken of, ex- 
cept that the back and belly of the animal are dried,separately, as the 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 563 

skin is different on those portions of the body, and would cure unevenly. 
When finished it is almost as stiff and dry as a board. This skin is used 
mainly for the soles of boots ; the pattern is cut from the hide and then 
chewed till it becomes sufficiently soft to sew. This last operation is 
also mainly performed by the old squaws. When they are too old to 
sew they become oqjook chewers as the last resort, and when their teeth 
fail them they are better off in the grave." (Ludwig Kumiieu. Bull. 
National Museum, No. 15.) 

Amongst the Central Eskimo, says Dr. Franz Boas, the latest author- 
ity, the skin of the seal [Phoca^fcetida) is dressed in difierent ways 
according to the purpose for which it is intended. In skinning the 
animal a longitudinal cutis made across the belly with a common butch- 
er's knife or one of ancient i^attern (An. Rep. Bur. Ethnol YI., Fig. 
460). The skin, with the blubber, is cut from the flesh with the same 
knife. The flippers are cut off at the points, and thus the whole skin is 
drawn off in a single piece. The woman's knife, ulo is used to clean and 
prepare the skins {id. Fig. 461), in which operation the women spread 
the skin over a piece of whalebone {Asimautang), a small board, or 
flat stone, and sit down before it, resting on their knees, the feet bent 
under the thighs. They hold the skin by the nearest edge, and push- 
ing the ulo forward, remove the blubber and deposit it in a small tub, 
which stands near the board. As they proceed to the opposite end of 
the skin the finished part is rolled up and held in the left hand. 

If the skin is to be used with the hair on it, the tough membrane 
[mami) which covers the inner side is removed in the same way as the 
blubber, and after it has been carefully patched and the holes have 
been cut all round the edge, it is stretched over a gravelly place or on 
snow by means of long pegs (pmiMon), Mhich hold it a few inches above 
the ground, thus allowing the air to circulate underneath it. The skin 
itself is washed and rubbed with gravel, snow, or ice, and every hole 
made by the bullet or by the spear or in preparing it is sewed up. It 
very seldom happens that the women in preparing it damage the skin 
or even the thin mammae. It is particularly difficult to split the skin 
near a hole. First, they finish the work all around it and then carefully 
sever the membrane at its edge. The skin is dried in the same way as 
the membrane. In the early part of spring, though it may still be very 
cold, a few choice young seal skins are dried on snow walls which fiice 
the south. In order thoroughly to dry a seal skin, one fine warm spring 
day is needed. If the Eskimos are greatly in need of skins they dry 
them in winter over the lamps. A frame is made of four poles, lashed 
together, according to the size of the skin. A thong passes through the 
slits along its edge and around the frame, keeping the skin well stretched. 
Thus it is placed over the lamps or near the roof of the hut. However, 
it is disagreeable work to dry the skins inside the huts, and as they are 
much inferior to those which are dried on the ground, the Eskimos 
avoid it if they can. When so prepared the seal skins are only fit for 



564 JREPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

covering tents, making bags, etc, ; they are too hard to be used for 
clothing, for which purpose the skin of yearlings is almost exclusively 
eni ployed. 

The young seals having shed for the first time have a very handsome 
coat, the hair being of a fine texture and much longer than in older ani- 
mals. From the middle of May until late in summer their skins are 
most suitable for the manufacture of summer clothing, but it is neces- 
sary to ijrotect the carcass of the killed animals from the burning rays 
of the sun as soon as possible, or the skin will be quickly spoiled. 

After being dried they are cleaned with a sharp scraper (teserqim) 
(Boas, Figs. 465, 466). The skin is then soaked in salt water and washed 
again. As soon as it is dry it is softened with a straight scraper 
(seligoung) (Boas, An. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., vi, Fig, 468). 

Skins of Phoca foetid a, Gystophora cristata, aud FJioca groenlandica 'dre^ 
prepared in the same way. 

Those that are intended for kayak covers, boots, mittens, quivers, etc., 
are prepared in a different way. They are either put into hot water or 
laid in a brook for a few days until the' hair begins to loosen. Then 
both sides are cleaned and worked with the ulo, in order to clean and 
shave them. When the hair has been removed they are dried and made 
Ijliable in the same way as has been described. If it is intended to make 
the skin as soft as possible, it is allowed to become putrid before it is 
cleaned. Then the hair and blubber are removed, and afterwards it is 
left to hang in the sun a few days until it acquires a light color. 

The large ground seal Erignathus harhatus is skinned in a different 
manner. Its skin is very thick, even thicker than sole-leather, and is 
extremely durable, and suitable for all sorts of lines, particularly traces, 
lashing and harpoon lines, and for soles, drinking cups, and boat covers. 
The skin of the back and of the breast dries unequally, and therefore a 
piece covering the throat and breast is taken out and dried separately. 
If it is to be used for lines, it is cut by making girdles about 6 inches in 
width around the body. The hair and blubber are removed from these 
cylindrical rings, from which lines are made by cutting spirally, a 
string 70 or 80 feet long being thus obtained. 

This line is stretched as taut as possible between two rocks, and 
while drying it undergoes an enormous tension. Before it is taken 
from the rocks the edges are rounded and cleaned with a knife. 

Walrus hide is always cut up before being j)repared. As soon as the 
walrus is killed it is cut into as many parts as there are partners in the 
hunt, every i)art being rolled up in a piece of skin and carried home in 
it. Sometimes the skin is used for making boats, but generally it is 
cut into lines. Both kinds of hide, that of the walrus and that of the 
ground seal, are as stiff" as a board when dried and require much work 
before being fit for use. They are chewed by the natives until they 
become thin and pliable. The whole skin must.be chewed in this way 
before it can be used for soles and boat covers. Afterwards it is scraped 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 565 

with the tesirqun and softened with the straight scraper. The new 
thongs after being dried between the rocks must be also chewed until 
they become sufficiently pliable, after which they are straightened by a 
tretcher that is held with the feet (Boas, Fig. 469.) Frequently they are 
only pulled over the sole of the boot for this purpose, the man taking 
hold of the lin.e at two points and pulling the intermediate part by 
turns to the right and to the left over the sole of the foot. 

Another kind of line is cut from the hide of the white whale, which 
is skinned in the same way as the ground seal: but, as it must be slit 
on the spinal column, the single pieces of line are much shorter, and 
they can not be used to the same extent as seal lines. Some lines are 
cut from the skins of Pagomys fmtidiLS, but these are weak and greatly 
inferior to lines of ground-seal hide. 

Deer skins are dried in summer and dressed after the ice has formed. 
Like all other kind of skins, they are not tanned, but curried. They 
are hung up on the rafters of the hut, and the workers in Oqo and 
Akudniru, the women — in Hudson Bay the men — take off" their jackets 
and begin preparing them with the sharp scraper. After being cleaned 
in this way they are thoroughly dried, either by hanging them near the 
roof of the hut, or according to Gilder, by wrapping them around the 
upper part of the body next to the skin, after which they are again 
scraped with the tesirqun. This done the flesh side is wetted, the skin 
is wrapped up for half a day or a day, and afterwards undergoes a 
new scraping. Then it is chewed, rubbed, and scraped all over, thus ac- 
quiring its i)liability , softness, and light color. In the spring the skin of 
bears and of seals are sometimes dried on large frames which are ex- 
posed to the sun, the skins being tied to theframes with thongs. Smaller 
quadrupeds, as foxes and ermines, are skinned by stripping the entire 
animal through its mouth without making a single cut in the skin. 
Birds are opened at the breast, and the body is taken out through this 
small hole; the head, wings, and legs being cut off at the neck and the 
joints. L»ucks are frequently skinned by cutting the skin around the 
head and the outer joints of the wings and legs, and stripping it off. 
The skins are cleaned by sucking out the fat and chewing them. 

Skins of salmon are used for water-proof bags, intestines of seals, par- 
ticularly those of ground seals, are carefully dried, and after being sewed 
together are used for sails, windows, and kyak jackets. 

The Malemnt Eskimo tan and soften the seal skin used for boot-soles 
in urine (Whimper, Tr. Ethnol. Soc. 1808), For making kyaks and 
umiaks seal skins are used. The skin is prepared in the lirst instance, 
while the hair is yet on it, by spreading fermented fish-spawn over it, 
and allowing it to remain until the hair rots oft". It is then stretched 
on a frame and saturated with urine until it becomes translucent. The 
fat is removed with bone and stone knives, metal being considered 
likely to cut it. (Whimper, Alaska, 1C2.) 



566 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

Tlie liicle scraper of the Chukclns isof stone or irou, and fastened to 
a wooden handle, and looks like a spokeshave. It is, indeed, the lineal 
descendant of the bone scraper. With this tool the moistened hide is 
cleaned very particularly, and is then rubbed, stretched, and kneaded 
so carefully, that several days go to the preparation of a single reindeer 
skin. That this is hard work is also shown by the woman who is era- 
ployed at it in the tent dripping with perspiration. While thus em- 
ployed she sits on a part of the skin and stretches out the other part 
with the united help of the hands and bare feet. When the skin has 
been sufficiently worked she fills a vessel with her own urine, mixes 
this with comminuted willow bark which has been dried over the lamp, 
and rubs the blood- warm liquid into the reindeer skin. In order to 
give this a red color on one side the bark of a species of Pinus (?) is 
mixed with the tanning liquid. The skins are made very soft by this 
process, and on the inner side almost resemble chamois leather. Some- 
times, too, the reindeer skin is tanned to real chamois of very excellent 
quality.* 

The Tuski understand the art of tanning and are able to produce 
very fair specimens, but practice it principally with seal skin, which is 
dressed in all colors. The white is very delicate and much prized. 
Deer skins are dressed with ammonia, red ocher and other materials. 
They are rendered very soft and pliable (W. H. Hooper, p. 183). 
This descriptioQ answers perfectly to the work done on the reindeer 
hide, both with and without the hair, by the Indians and Eskimo of 
Ungava, Canada. 

A large collection of those brought by Lucien Turner will be found 
in the National Museum. The softness of the texture is marvelous. 
Not one i)article of rigid fiber sterns to have been left in the skin. 
In order to effect this perfect flexibility the statement of IsTordeu- 
skjold is not overrated. Indeed, those who have seen some of the best 
of the wigwams made of buffalo hide depilated will recall the soft- 
ness and pliability effected in this refractory material by the applica- 
tion of human muscle, which after all is the chief ingredient in abo- 
riginal tanning. 

CHAPTER III. 
SKIN DRESSING AMONG THE INDIANS. 

The skin-working apparatus of the Naskopi Indians is described by 
Lucien Turner. 

This instrument is one of the few really labor-saving tools of the 
poorly equipped Naskopi; and is particularly effective in removing the 
hair from the hides of various mammals or the fat from the flesh side 
of the skins. The skin is removed from the beast and laid aside until 
a convenient time arrives for preparing it for its intended uses. The 

* Nordenskjold, Voyage of the Vega, New York, 1882, MacmillaD, 486, Fig. 1. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 567 

time depends on the soason of the year ; for if it be in the height of the 
deer-killing the poor sqaaw has her hands full of labor, since she must 
not only remove the skins from the carcasses, but prepare the flesh for 
drying, smoking, or other manner of preserving it for the future. To 
these labors are to be added the other domestic duties which fully oc- 
cupy the shortening days of the year, and often cause her to express a 
wish that the deer were less plentiful for the time being. When a num- 
ber of reindeer skins have been collected they are wetted and thrown 
into a pile, where they are allowed to decompose or ferment until the 
hair is loosened in its follicle. The process may be inspected from time 
to time, and when advanced to a proper state a skiu is taken from the 
heap to undergo the act of depilation, which is eftected in the following 
manner, (riate LXVII, Fig. 1.) 

The radius or large bone of the fore-leg of the reindeer is cleaned of 
its flesh and one side of the shaft or central portion of the bone is re- 
moved, leaving two sharp edges. One edge is dull or rounded for rea- 
sons which will appear clear in the manner of using the scraper. The 
other or outer side (for the instrument is to be held in a certain way) is 
rendered sharp, so as to form an edge, but not so keen as to cut the pelt. 
Tbe skin is now placed upon a short beam of wood about 3 or 4 inches 
in diameter and long enough to reach obliquely from the abdomen of 
the standing person to the ground at a convenient distance, say 4 feet 
in length. Over this beam the skin is laid with the hinder part of the 
skin towards the person, so as to allow the edge of the scraper to work 
against the layer of hair. The scraper is now seized with one end in 
each hand and applied to the portion of the skin lying in contact with 
the beam. A skilful push dislodges the hair, and the skin appears clean 
and free from hair wherever the edge of the bone has scraped its sur- 
face. The process continues until each part of the skin is brought un- 
der the edge of the scraper and the work is complete. This instrument 
is also employed to remove the excess of water from a skin that has 
been wetted to bring it into the degree of pliability desired. It is em- 
ployed in the same mannor to remove the scurf from the skins of the 
white whales {Delphinapterus calodon), captured in goodly numbers each 
year near Fort Chimo. (I must here add that the Whale Eiver (Fort 
George) Indians perform this labor, as the Naskopis consider the whale 
too oily a creature for them to work. It only proves that the employ- 
ment of this instrument is not confined to the Naskopi Indians.) 

It should be understood that this form of aboriginal beaming-knife is 
employed for removing the hair from reindeer skins that are to be con- 
verted into parchment (raw hide) or into buckskin. It is to be remarked 
that the scraper is used only after the flesh side of the skin has received 
attention. The flesh side requires another form of instrument to effect 
the removal of the skin-muscles, ligaments, and adherent fat. An in- 
strument is especially made for removing that part. The heel bone of 
the reindeer is cut very obliquely at the lower end, so that the tlat edge 



568 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

may form a blade, whicli is ground sharp and then finely serrated. A 
strap-like loop is tied around the bone, and when the tool, which is adze 
and chisel combined, is grasped, the hand is prevented from slipping 
along the bone by the loop passing under the wrist and supporting the 
hand. The adherent muscle is quickly separated from the skin and 
forms a sort of vellum, which may be dried and serve as wrappers for 
bundles of furs or dry meat. The fleshy side of the skin is rubbed with 
a mixture of decomposed brains and liver and laid away for several 
hours. The process of rubbing is next resorted to, resembling the act 
of rubbing linen in the laundry between the hands. When the desired 
pliability is gained, the superabundant fat and moisture are removed 
by calcareous earths, bone dust, or flour, to act as absorbents. The skins 
are now ready for any purpose. (Plate LXVIII, Figs. 1, 2, 3.) 

Lieut. G. T. Emmons, TJ. S. Navy, says that the Chilkat women pro- 
cure the hair of the Eocky Mountain goat for their sacred blankets by 
rolling up the hide until it sweats and the pores are opened. A woman 
then sits on the ground, lays the skin on her lap, and with her hands 
scrapes ofi' the hair in great flakes, without the use of a beaming-knife 
of any kind. This, of course, is the simplest form of dopilation. The 
next is that practiced by the Indians of northern California, who em. 
ploy a rib of the elk, without any modification whatever. 

The manner of preparing buckskin by the Nisqually and Columbia 
River Indians is as follows: Immediately after the animal is killed the 
skin, having all the hair scraped off, is stretched tight on a frame. It is 
there left until it becomes as dry as jjarchment, then it is rubbed over 
with the brains of the animal, which impart oil to it. It is then steeped 
in warm water and dried in the smoke, two women stretching it all the 
time it is drying. It is then again wet and wound tightly around a 
tree, from which it is again taken, smoked, and drawn by the women as 
before. When nearly dry it is rubbed with the hands, as in washing, 
until it is soft and pliable, and then it is ready for use. 

Mr. Forest stated to me that he had put on a suit twenty-four hours 
after the animal had been running in the forest. (Wilkes.) 

The Crows, like theBlackfeet, arebeautifally costumed, and perhaps 
with somewhat more of taste and elegance, inasmuch as the skins of 
which their dresses are made are more delicately and whitely dressed. 
The art of dressing skins belongs to the Indians in all countries; and 
the Crows surpass the civilized world in the beauty of their skin-dress- 
ing. The art of tanning is unknown to them, when civilized habits 
and arts have not been taught them ; yet the art of dressing skins, 
as we have it in the civilized world, has been (like hundreds of other 
ornamental and useful customs which we are practicing) borrowed from 
the savage without our ever stopping to inquire whence they come 
or by whom invented. 

The usual mode of dressing the buffalo and other skins is by im- 
mersing them for a few days under a lye from ashes and water until 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 569 

tbe bair can be removecl, when tbey arestretcbed upon a frame or upon 
tbe ground with stakes or plus driven through the edger, into the earth, 
where they remain for several days, with the brains of the buffalo or 
elk spread upon and over them, and at last finished by " graining," as 
it is termed by the squaws, who use a sharpened bone, the shoulder- 
blade, or other large bone of the animal, sharpened at the edge some- 
what like an adze, with the edge of which they scrape the fleshy side 
of the skill, bearing on it with the weight of their bodies, thereby 
drying and softening the skin and fitting it for use. (Plate XCI.) 

The greater part of these skins, however, go through still another 
operation afterwards, which gives them a greater value and renders 
them much more serviceable — that is, the process of smoking. For 
this a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with rot- 
ten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without much 
blaze, and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the ground 
aronud it, drawn and fastened together at the top, around which a skin 
is wrapped in form of a tent, generally sewed together at the edges to 
secure the smoke within it. In this the skins to be smoked are placed, 
and in this condition the tent will stand a day or two inclosing the 
heated smoke, and b^' some chemical process or other which I do not 
understand the skins acquire a quality which enables them, after being 
wet many times, to dry soft and pliant as they were before, which secret 
I have never yet seen practiced in my own country, and for the lack of 
which all of our dressed skins, when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined. 

An Indian's dress of deer skins, which is wet a hundred times upon 
his back, dries softj and his lodge also, which stands in the rains and 
even through the severity of winter, is taken down as soft and as clean 
as when it was first put up. 

A Crow is known wherever he is met by his beautiful white dress and 
his tall and elegant figure, the greater part of the men being C feet 
high. The Blackfeet, on the other hand, are more of the herculean 
make, about middling stature, with broad shoulders and great expan- 
sion of chest, and the skins of which their dresses are made are chiefly 
dressed black or of a dark-brown color, froui which circumstance, in all 
probability they — having black leggins or moccasins — have got the name 
of Blackfeet. (Catlin's Eight Years, pp. 4G-47, vol. 1.) 

Among the Sioux the hides were stretched and dried as soon as possi- 
ble after they were taken from the animals. When a hide was stretched 
on the ground pins were driven through holes along the borders of the 
hide. These holes had been cut with a knife. While the hide was still 
green the women scraped it on the under side by pushing a webajabe 
over its surface, thus removing the su])erfluous flesh, etc. The webajabe 
was formed from the lower bone of an elk's leg, which had been made 
thin by scraping or striking. Tlie lower end was sharpened by striking, 
having several teeth-like projections, as in the accompanying figure. 
A withe was tied to the upper end, and this was secured to. the arm of 



570 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

the woman just above the wrist. When the hide was dry the woman 
stretched it again upon the ground, and proceeded to make it thinner 
and lighter by using another implement called the weubaja, which she 
moved towards her after the manner of ah adze. This instrument was 
formed from an elk horn, to the lower end of which was fastened a piece 
of iron (in recent times) called the weu-hi. (Plates XC and XOI.) 

When the hide was needed for a summer tent, leggins, or summer 
clothing of any sort, the weubaja was applied to the hairy side. When 
the hide was sufficiently smooth grease was rubbed on it, and it was laid 
out-of-doors to dry in the sun. This act of greasing the hide was 
called wawexigxi, because they sometimes used the brains of the elk or 
buffalo for that purpose. 

Dougherty stated that in his day they used to spread over the hide 
the brains or liver of the animal, which had been carefully retained 
for that purpose, and the warm broth of the meat was also poured over 
it. Some persons made two-thirds of the brain of an animal suffice for 
dressing its skin. But Frank La Fleche says that the liver was not 
used for tanning purposes, though the broth was so used when it was 
brackish. 

When the hide had been dried in the sun it was soaked by sinking 
it beneath the surface of any adjacent stream. This act lasted about 
two days. Then the hide was dried again and subjected to the final 
operation, which was intended to make it sufficiently soft and pliant. 
A twisted sinew about as thick as one's finger, called the " wexikinde," 
was fastened at each end to a post or a tree about 5 feet from the 
ground. The hide was put through this and pulled back and forth. 
This act was called waxikinde. On the commencement of this process, 
called ta"pe, the hides were almost invariably divided longitudinally 
into two parts each, for the convenience of the operator. When finished 
they were again sewed together with awls and sinews. When the hides 
were small they were not so divided before they were tanned. 

The skins of elk, deer, and antelopes were dressed in a similar 
manner. (J. O. Dorsey, An. Eept. Bur. Ethnol. 1881-'82, p. 310.) 

Dressing skins by the Sioux Indians is thus described by a noted 
traveler : "They had killed a large elk, the skin of which the women 
were employed in dressing. They had stretched it out by means of 
leather straps on the ground near the tent, and the women were scrap- 
ing off the particles of flesh and fat with a well-contrived instrument 
made of bone, sharpened at one end, and furnished wath little teeth 
like a saw, and at the other end a strap, which is fastened around the 
waist. The skin is scraped with the sharp edge of this instrument 
until it is perfectly clean. Several Indians have iron teeth fixed to 
this bone." (Maximilian's Travels.) 

Again: " We looked at the women as they worked ; for the shoes 
they made they had softened the leather in a tub of water and 
stretched it in the breadth and length with their teeth. In another 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 571 

tent the women were dressing skins, either with ;i pumice-stone or with 
the toothed instrument described before. They then pulled the skin 
over a line in all directions to make it pliable." (Maximilian, p. 158.) 

Among the Kiowa Indians those skins taken are mostly dressed for 
lodges. They are first staked on a smooth spot of ground and water 
put upon them, when they are ready for fleshing. This consists in re- 
moving the flesh with an instrument made of a straight bar of iron, 
about a foot in length, flattened at one end and filed to the edge. This 
being grasped in the hand, and a succession of quick blows given, the 
work slowly proceeds. The skin is then dried, after which the hair is 
removed in a dry state, and the skin reduced to the proper thickness by 
dressing down on the hair side. This is done with an instrument made 
by firmly tying a flat piece of steel, filed to a beveled edge at one end 
and with the corners rounded, to a large prong of a deer's horn. This 
is so trimmed, in connection with the body of the horn, as to form an 
elbow, and is used a little as a carpenter uses his adze. This work is 
usually done in the cool of the morning. The brains of the animal, 
having been properly taken care of for the purpose, are now soaked 
and sqeezed by the hand until reduced to a paste and applied to both 
sides of the skin, which is afterwards worked and rubbed until flexible. 

The preparation of robes is from winter skins, and differs from the 
foregoing only in being dressed down on the flesh side, so as to leave 
the wool and hair upon the robe, and is more thoroughly worked and 
scoured by means of a sharp gritted stone. (Thomas C. Battey. A 
Quarter of a Century among the Indians, 1875, pp. 187-188.) 

The Pitt Elver Indians and the Modocs tan their leather by nearly 
the same process. When an Indian wants buckskin for clothes, imme 
diately after skinning a deer he cuts its head open, procures the brains, 
spreads the skin on a smooth log with the bark off. The flesh side 
of the skin being up, he rubs the brains over it and allows it to 
dry. This makes the hide not only grain easier, but half tans it. 
The skin is then thrown into the stream, where it is allowed to re- 
main three or four days. This raises the grain. It is then thrown 
across a slick smooth piece of log about 10 or 12 inches in diameter. 
One end of this stick is usually about 3 feet off of the ground and the 
other end resting on the ground. The neck of the skin is now pulled 
6 or 8 inches over the elevated end of the graining log, and the 
stomach of the grainer pressed tightly against it. A flat stick is usually 
placed between the stomach and the skin. This enables the workman 
to hold the skin from slipping. He has what is known as a graining- 
knife. This knife is now made of iron, but was not long since made of 
hard yew wood. It is from one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch thick, 
by 2 to 3 inches wide. It is curved edgewise to fit the round surface 
of the graining-log. The edge is perfectly square. There is a handle 
at each end, and the knife is taken by each handle and pushed vigor- 
ously down the skin. This is rather slow work ; still, an Indian will 



572 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

grain twelve or fifteen skins in a day. After a skin is grained it is 
thrown into a basket of water. This water has a lot of roots cnt np in 
it that causes the water to lather like SQap. In fact it is called soap- 
root, and is used not only for tanning, but for washing clothes, etc. 
The hide is allowed to remain in this soapy water from three to four 
days. It is then taken out and rubbed and pulled dry. This completes 
the tanning of a skin. If, though, it be a very large one, the same pro- 
cess is gone through with, except the graining, the second time, which 
invariably leaves the skin soft and nice. This rule is slightly varied by 
some of the tribes. For example, the brains will be taken from the 
deer's head and cooked about half. This keeps it from spoiling. The 
skin is soaked longer to raise the grain, sometimes a little ashes being 
sprinkled on the skin, which makes the grain slip. After graining the 
skin is thrown into brain-water and soaked, instead of using the soap- 
root water. It is then worked as before described until soft. We now 
have buckskin. To prevent this from becoming stiff' and hard when 
wet it is thoroughly smoked. This smoking process is also practiced 
by the settlers here, but I think the idea originated with the Indians. 
A ditch is cut in the ground about 2 feet deep and 20 or 25 feet long. 
At one end of this ditch a rough fire-place is made, being usually walled 
up with rock. Over the other end of the ditch is a large hollow log, 
something like a bee-gum, only larger and taller. In this the buckskins 
are hung, and the top of the gum i^retty well closed. Sticks are laid 
cross-wise close together from one end of the ditch to the other and 
covered completely over with dirt. This makes a Wind ditch from fire- 
place to the gum. A fire is now built in this fire-place, and the smoke 
naturally follows the ditch, there being an escape for the smoke in the 
top of the gum. The idea of having the ditch long is a good one ; the 
smoke becomes cool in its passage through the ground, and there is no 
danger of burning the buckskin. A buckskin is smoked two or three 
days. After this it can be washed like a piece of cloth, and when dry 
is equally as soft. 

The tribes belonging to the Shoshonian stock inhabiting the Great 
Interior Basin were formerly most expert manufacturers of buckskin 
leather. Clothing, tents, and much of their paraphernalia were made 
of three kinds — the white, the yellow, and the brown. The processes 
of preparing were identical in the main with those described. How- 
ever, the hair was removed in many cases by rolling up the hide in ashes 
wet with warm water for a few days. The hair was then removed by 
means of a wooden knife, a rib, or in later times with an old case-knife 
or bit of hooi)-iron. The yellow and the brown skins received their 
tint by drying them over a smoldering fire of dry willow for the former 
and green willow for the latter color. The skins were vigorously pulled 
and stretched in every direction while the drying and smoking^^ were 
going on. (Compare Plates XCI, XOII, XCITI.) 

Tanning among the Pawnees is thus effected : The hide is extended 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 573 

upon the groaiul and with an iustrumeiit resembliug an adz, used in 
the manner of our carpenters, the adherent portions of dried flesh are 
removed and the skin rendered much thinner and lighter than before. 
The surface is then plastered over with the brains or liver of the ani- 
mal, which have been carefully retained for the purpose, and the warm 
broth of meat is also poured over it. The whole is then dried after which 
it is again subjected to the action of the brains or broth, then stretched 
in a frame and while still wet scraped with pumice-stone, sharp stones, 
or hoes until perfectly dry. Should it not be sutiicieutly soft it is sub- 
jected to friction by pulling it backward and forward over a twisted 
sinew= 

This generally terminated the process.* On the commencement of it 
the hides are almost invariably divided each longitudinally into two 
parts for the convenience of manipulations and when finished they are 
again united by sewing with sinew. This seam is admost always pres- 
ent in the bison robe, but one of the largest we have seen is used for 
covering on one of our beds, and has been dressed entire, being desti- 
tute of a seam. When, the process of tanning and dressing is com- 
pleted and the inner surface of the skin dry, figures are traced upon it 
with Vermillion and otiier showy colors. These are designed as oriux- 
meuts, but are sometimes the record of important facts. (Long's Ex., 
Vol. I, pp. 221, 440.) 

The Senecas used to tan green hides. If a hide was dry it was soaked 
in the water of a running stream, after which it was stretched on a 
smooth log the size of a man's leg. With a knife-blade, placed in a 
curved stick, all the hair and outside skin was scraped off. After that 
the flesh was scraped off and the skin thoroughly dried. It was then 
soaked in a suds made of deer's brains and warm water, one or two In- 
dians rubbing with stones, much like those called axes plowed up in 
the fields, and often pulling the skin. A hole 18 inches in diameter 
was then made in the ground and the skin suspended above it on upright 
sticks and smoked, until the desired color is produced, by burning 
rotten wood beneath. The skin was then ready for use. 

Skin-dressing among the Eastern Indians is thus described : 

These skius they convert into very good leather making the same plume and soft. 
Some of these skinues they dress with haire on and some with the haire off. The 
hairy side in winter they weare next their bodies and in warme weather they weare 
the haire outwards. They make likewise some coates of the Feathers of Turkies 
which they weave together with twine of their owue makinge very prettily ; these 
garments they weare like mantels knit over their their shoulders and i>ut under their 
armes. They have likewise another sort of mantels made of Mose skinnes, which 
beast ia a great large Deere so bigge as a horse. These skinues they commonly dresse 
bare and make them wouderous white and stripe them with size round about the 
borders, in form like lace set on byataylor and some they stripe with size in works of 
severall fashions very curious, according to severall fantasies of the workmen where- 
in they strive to excel! one another. And mantels made of Beares skinnes is an usuall 
wearinge among tho natives that live where the beares doe haunt. They make 
skinnes of Moae skinnes, which is the principal lether used to that pui'poso and for 



574 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

want of such lether which is the strongest, they make shoes of deeres skinnes very 
handsomely and commodious, and of such deeres skinnes as they dresse bare they 
make stockings that comes within their shoes, like a stirrup stockinge and is fastened 
above at their belt which is about their middell. -A good well growne deere skiu is of 
great account witli them and it must have the tale on, or else they account it de- 
faced. The tale being three times as long as the tales of our English Deere, yea foure 
times solonge. This when they travell is raped round about their body and with a 
girdle of their making bound round about their middles to which girdle is fastened a 
bagg in which his instruments be with which hee can strike fire upon any occasion. 
Of their several arts and employments ; as first in dressing all manner of skinnes, 
which they do by scraping and rubbing, afterwards painting them with antique em- 
broyderings in unchangeable colors, sometimes they take off the haire especially if it 
beo not killed in f^eason. (Wood's N. England Prospect. Prince Pub. Soc. I. Page 
101.) 

DETAILS OF SKIN-DRESSING AMONG THE NAYAJOS. 

Wbeu the author at first contemplated this paper he found that the 
accounts of the most careful observers were not quite up to his require- 
ments. He therefore wrote to his friend Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, TJ. S. 
Arm,\, begging him to define the process as minutely as possible. The 
result was most satisfactory and was published in the Proceedings of 
the Museum for 1888. As much of Dr. Shufeldt's paper as is necessary 
to complete this narrative is here reproduced, together with the illus- 
trations. The reader should note especially the similarity of the hair 
scraper to those from Point Barrow, Labrador, the Interior Basin, and 
the graves of Madison ville, Ohio. (Plates LXI to LXVII.) 

Dr. Shufeldt employed a Navajo to do the wort for him. In a day 
or two this Indian returned with a fiae doe, an adult specimen of 
Cariacus macrotis. He had skinned the legs of the animal from the 
hoofs up as far as the ankles, which he disarticulated partially, so the 
limbs could be tied more compactly together, and thus be less liable 
to either frighten his horse or catch in the low timber as he returned 
home with his game. 

"The deer which had been captured for me had already been evisce- 
rated and the skin divided from its chin to its tail, the entire length of 
the under side of the animal. In a moment with a sharp hunting-knife 
he divided the skiu on the inside of the thighs, from the ankles to the 
abdominal division, making similar incisions on the inside of the fore- 
limbs. The legs were quickly skinned, the small tail split up on its 
under side and the vertebrae removed, while with his knife the hide 
was started on both sides from the abdominal and throat incision and 
quickly removed in the direction of the animal's back. Thus it was 
that the skin was removed from the entire body and up to the ears first; 
then as he arrived at the latter, their cartilages were cut through close 
to the skull, leaving the great ears of this species of deer attached to 
the hide. When he arrived at the eyes, these were skinned round, 
much in the same way as a skilful taxidermist manages the eyes in any 
vertebrate specimen he may be preparing. Upon arriving at the muzzle 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 575 

he simply divided the skin all around, posterior to the external nostrils, 
and the operation of remov^ing the hide was completed. (PI. LXI.) 
He next proceeded to dig a hole in the ground about as big as a bushel. 
The bottom of this exca\ration was tramped hard with his feet and the 
hide placed therein, hair side up, and immediately covered with cold 
water. On top of the hide he placed a camp-kettle bottom side up, 
and braced it down with the spade. This was to prevent the skin from 
drying and to keep the dogs from eating it during the night. 

" In the morning he left the camp with an axe to soon return with 
the trunk of a small pine tree. At its thickest end it was about 6 
inches through, and about 4 inches at the smaller extremity. From . 
one side of the larger half he removed the bark, completely exposing 
the smooth surface of the wood beneath it. He next cut a deep notch in 
the big end of this stick, so as to assist in bracing it against the limb of 
a small cedar tree near by, with the smooth surface facing him and the 
small end of the stick resting firmly upou the ground some two feet 
from the base of the cedar tree. Around about was plentifully be- 
strewn some clean short hay, to prevent the hide from being soiled 
upou the ground beneath. He now returned to the hole where the 
skin had remained over night, and it was taken out to be washed in 
clean water, when he proceeded with a sharp knife to remove all super- 
fluous tissue from its raw side, skinned the ears carefully by removing 
completely the cartilaginous parts, then cleared away the muscles 
which had remained attached about their bases, trimmed off the remains 
of the panniculus muscle, and indeed left nothing but a thoroughly 
clean hide which received its final dip in clear water. 

" It was now ready to have the hair shaved from it. The tanner 
obtained his scrapers from the bones of the fore limb of the deer he had 
killed, and the ulna and radius of this limb are wonderfully well fitted 
to perform the work of this natural spoke-shave. These bones, as we 
well kuow, are, in a deer, as in many other hoofed animals, quite 
firmly united together, having a form well known to the comparative 
osteologist. The shaft of the ulna, which is closely approximated to 
the shaft of the radius, has its posterior edge thin and sharp, which is 
still further improved by the tanner scraping it with his knife. The 
olecranon process, with the deep sigmoid notch, forms an excellent 
handle at one end, while the enlarged distal end of the radius, with the 
carpal bones, which are usually" left attached, forms a good one at the 
other. Moreover, the curvature of the shafts of this consolidated bone 
is favorable for the use of our Indian tanner, who, in using this primi- 
tive instrument, slings it at either end in his hands, and works with it 
in shaving ofl' the hair much in the same manner as one of our carpen- 
ters uses a spoke-shave, only here the sharp edge of the ulna bone takes 
the place of the knife-edge in doing its special work. (Plate LXII.) 

" Before proceeding further I should mention that, after removing the 
hide, on the first day he placed the skinned head of the deer, without 



576 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. . ♦ 

the lower jaw, ia the low ashes of a camp fire, where the brains were 
able to become semi-baked during the first uight, as these parts too 
are utilized in the tanning process. 

"Next to shaving off the hair, the hide is thrown over a small log he 
had arranged against the tree in the morning, being held in place by 
catching the skin of the head between the notch and the limb, the skin 
of the hinder parts being always nearer the ground, and as the work 
proceeds it is dettly shifted about by ihe tanner. 

"Now all the hair, except on the lower parts of the legs and the tail, 
is rapidly scraped oft" with these bone scrapers, including the black epi- 
dermis. Some tanners use a deer's rib, or that of the beef, and others 
a dull hunting-knife, but the bones of the deer's fore-arm is the usual 
instrument, and it is quite remarkable to observe how skilfully it is 
managed, and how rarely a hole is cut in the skin. The shaving is car- 
ried to the very edges of the hide all arouud, and even the backs of the 
ears are carefully scraped, the entire operation lasting from two to four 
hours, depending upon the size of the deer. 

" In appearance the hide now has the same form as when removed 
from the animal, the hair side is clean and white, the body side devoid 
of all superfluous tissue, the back of the ears still showing the black 
epidermal layer of the skin, as it is only from these parts where it is 
not scraped off with the hair 5 the hair also is left on the skin of the 
lower halves of the four limbs. 

"A thorough washing is now given it in several changes of clear, 
cold water, though sometimes in the last wash the water may be made 
slightly tepid, and in this it is allowed to stand while the tanner pre- 
pares the brains of the animal soon to be used in another stage of his 
work. Picking up the deer's skull from the ashes where he had left it 
the night before, he took an ax and split it along the bifrontal suture, 
cleaving the skull partly in two, then chipping oft' the parietal bones he 
was enabled to lift out the brains nearly entire. They were at once 
transferred to a basin of tepid water, where b3^ gentle manipulation the 
little slivers of the bone (which had gotten into it while splitting the 
cranium), the blood, etc., were eftectually removed. Next they were 
l)laced in a small quantity of tepid water in another basin and put upon 
a low fire, where they were allowed to simmer for over an hour. At 
the end of this time the water, then being not so hot but that one could 
comfortably hold his hand in it;, had come to be of a muddy color, and 
our tanner, using the fingers of one hand as a sieve, lifted out from the 
water the little particles of brain in a small pile upon the palm of his 
opposite hand; then, by rubbing this together between the palms of 
his hands, it was soon reduced to a pasty mass. This process was con- 
tinued until all the brains were thus reduced and dissolved, and then 
the water m which they were had about three times its quantity of 
tepid water added to it, nearly filling the small basin. 

" Returning to the skin, it was now removed from the water where it 
had been left, carefully rinsed, and wrung out with the hands much as 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-I)RES.S1N(}. 577 

we see washing women wring clothes, and carried over to the tree 
where the scraping process had been done. Here the tanner selected 
a small limb about o or 6 feet from the ground and passed the head and 
neck of the hide under and over it, and then carefully folded this latter 
l)art lengthwise along the middle of the body surface of the hide, and 
twisted the whole over and over again until he came to the fore legs. 
It will be seen that the limb was firmly folded within a loop of the 
hide, and by pulling heavily upon it I saw that there was no such 
thing as its slipping. In a similar manner the skin of the fore legs was 
folded lengthwise inside the hide; then the borders of the abdominal 
incision were likewise folded in, and in turn the skin of the hind legs, 
but this latter had, of course, to be thrown in, in the direction of the 
tree, so as to include theuj. The' borders of the hinder parts were 
thrown over in such a way as to form a loop like the one around the 
limb of the tree. During all of this operation the hide was being twisted 
from left to right, and at its completion looked like a wet hide rope, 
fast, as we have described, to the tree at one end and looped over a 
stick about two feet long at its middle at the other. This latter was 
used as a twister by the tanner, for now he proceeded to wring the 
hide thoroughly by twisting it over in one direction, causing the water 
to be rapidly squeezed out of it. (PI. LXIII.) By continuance of this 
twisting the skin was finally brought up close to the limb of the tree in 
a hard coil, where by hooking the turning stick under the limb it was 
held in that position and allowed to drip for nearly an hour. At the 
end of the above-mentioned time the Indian unhooked the stick, un- 
twisted the hide, and took it down. It had apparently shrunk two- 
thirds of its size, and looked like a damp, semi-tanned dog-skin. The 
tanner immediately set to work to pull it into shape as he walked in 
the direction of his camp-fire. 

" Spreading out a small buffalo robe, he sat down on it (Plate LXIV) 
and proceeded to pull the hide vigorously with his hands in every direc- 
tion. Catching hold of the extreme edges, he tugged away at it until 
it was nearly its original size. I noticed, however, that he only em- 
ployed his hands in this i^art of the operation, and never once resorted 
to his feet for assistance in the stretching. 

"After he was satisfied that the entire surface of the hide was opened 
and exposed again, he carefully spread it out perfectly flat, with the 
hair side up, upon the bufl'alo robe on which he had been sitting; then, 
taking his basinful of dissolved deer brains, he commenced applying it 
with his hand to the surface from which the hair had been removed. 
It is never put on the opposite side of the skin. In doing this he fre- 
quently rubbed the solution well in, using his open hand for the pur- 
pose, and as he came to the head, ears, and legs he worked the stuft' in 
with his finger.'s, and occasionally kneaded it with his knuckles, going 
over the entire skin on the side referred to until his basin of brains was 
expended and the whole had been worked in as described. (Plate LXV, 
H. Mis. 224, pt. 2 37 



578 REPORT OF NATIONAL MnSEUM, 1889. 

" Upon asking- him why he put it only on the hair side, he gave me 
to understand that the pores were on that side, and consequently the 
brains could get into the skin more effectually, and upon inquiring why 
he put them on at all, he said, ' To make it soft.' Buckskin that is 
tanned without using brains is harsh and stiff" afterwards, and stiil 
worse in these particulars if it happens to get wet at any time. 

" The Navajoes often use beef brains for this pur]3ose, especially when 
their game is taken far from camp and they do not care to pack the 
deer skulls home on their ponies. In early days they employed deer 
brains as a rule, but in some cases the brains of the buffalo, when that 
animal existed in their country. 

"Finally, as the last step of the process, he commenced, by folding 
in the edges of the skin all round continuously, to make it up into an 
ellipsoidal ball, quite firm, though not tightly rolled. He then wrapped 
it up in the buffalo robe and allowed it to remain out in the sun for 
about fifteen minutes for the purpose, he said, ' of letting the brains go 
well into him.' 

"Once more in its wet and limp' condition it is thoroughly opened, 
and this time spread out over the top of a sage bush near by with the 
outer surface exposed to the sun and sufficiently from the ground to 
prevent the dogs from getting at it, or its being soiled through accident. 
It was now about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and very warm, and the 
skin at once commenced to show the effects of it as the first stages of 
drying set in. Nevertheless, I was informed that the hide would now 
be allowed to remain there and dry until dark, when it would be placed 
up on top of the " hogan " for the night, or in the event it rained, to be 
taken in and hung up on the inside. Next morning I was on the ground 
at 9 o'clock, and was thoroughly surprised at the appearance of the 
hide when it was brought out and shown me. Although I was familiar 
with the making of buckskin, not only as practiced by the Navajoes, 
but by the Sioux and other North American Indians, I never happened 
to have seen it in this particular stage, that is, right after the drying on 
the second day, 

" I found that it had again shrunken so as to be not more than one- 
third of its original size, or just after it had been removed from the 
animal. It was hard and appeared almost brittle, as though it might 
be broken in two ; moreover it was semi-transparent, and easily trans- 
mitted the light through it, or even prominent objects might be out- 
lined through it in favorable lights. In color it was of a deep, muddy 
amber, or a semi-transluceuc Eoman ocher, and one would never have 
suspected in the world that it was either a deer hide, or that in a few 
short hours it be converted into the softest and most durable fabric in 
the country — a tanned buckskin. 

By the exercise of considerable ingenuity and careful bending he now 
forced the skin into a large camp-kettle containing water uom which 
the chill had been taken off" by the addition of a little warm water, and 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRES8ING. 579 

in this it was allowed to soak well for the next three hours, staudiug 
all this time oat in the morniug; sun. 

Some of the Indians insist that this soaking should be done in cold 
water (spring water), and a new Mexican guide who has been among 
the Navajoes for many years, being an excellent tanner himself, claims 
that it is almost the universal practice to soak it in cold water on the 
morning of the third day instead of in tepid water. However, there 
was but little difference, for on the present occasion the water was 
almost cold from the start, and quite so after the skin had been in 
twenty minutes. This washing, the Indians tell me, was to remove all 
traces of the brains which were rubbed into the skin on the day before. 
He next gives it three or four thorough rinsings in clear cold water, and 
takes it over to the tree to wring it. This is done precisely in the man- 
ner already described above and shown in the plates. 

" Likewise it is curled once more, made into a coil, twisted and re- 
twisted upon itself, and allowed to drip in this condition for nearly half 
an hour. It is then once more undone and drawn out into shape, as 
on a previous occasion after wringing. 

" He is very careful now in exposing the entire surface j pulling the 
edges, stretching the skin of the ears, flattening out the skin that cov- 
ered the legs, and paying similar attention to the little tail. 

" In the mean time he had brought a large square piece of canvas 
and spread it out upon the ground near where he was at work. It is 
upon this that the last stages of the operation will be performed. 
Bringing next a sharp knife, it takes him but a moment to whittle out 
from a soft piece of pine an instrument that resembled a large wooden 
awl. This, with the knife, he threw upon the canvas sheet, where 
they may be distinctly seen in Plate LXVI. To return to our hide, how 
different it looks after this second wringing; but he persists in pulling 
away at the edges all around, over and over again, until the whole is 
manipulated into a shape to suit him. Even this primary handling now 
has its effect, and in some places the skin begins to grow like buck- 
skin. At last he sits down on the middle of the canvas sheet, having 
first thrown aside his hat and removed his moccasins. He wears nothing 
but his thin Navajo shirt and trousers, while beside him is his wooden 
awl and sharp knife. (Plate LXVI.) 

" He threw the now limp skin lengthwise over his naked feet and 
pulled it with both hands in the direction of his body. Rapidly re- 
peating this operation, he turned it and tugged at it the other way. 
But it was most often thrown over his feet and vigorously pulled 
towards him. Then he stretched it out with his hands, pulled it this 
way and then pulled it that, worked at the edges to get them limp and 
pliant, manipulated the ears and the skin of the legs. But during all 
this an interesting change was coming over it, the heat of an August 
sun was rapidly drying it, it was fast coming to a velvet-like softness 
throughout, and attaining* its original size, it was changing to a uni- 



580 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

form pale clay color. The hair side was smooth, while the inside was 
roughish. Indeed, in a few moments more it was buckskin. 

" Picking up next his wooden awl, he commenced far forward on the 
extreme edge of the skin on the right side of the neck, and by succes-' 
sively stretching it over the handle of the awl, cut upon this edge some 
dozen or thirteen holes with his knife. Then beginning in front, he put 
the awl in every hole, and by holding on to the edge of the opposite 
side with his left hand he was enabled to powerfully stretch the skin of the 
neck transversely. This operation is shown in Plate LXVI. His mark 
must go on next, so turning the skin of head over, he cut on either side 
just below the ear on the body or inner surface of the skin a leaf-like 
figure, with the apex pointing forward and outward. 

"This was the last touch of all, and the now finished fabric, if we 
may call it a fabric, so pliant, so soft, and withal so useful, was spread 
out on the canvas for an hour in the sun to receive its final drying, 
after which it passed into the possession of the National Museum. One 
of these finished skins retains much the same form as the hide had 
when first removed, though it may be rather longer from the stretch- 
ing. The backs of the ears are always black 5 the edges all around are 
uneven and harder than the rest of the skin; the hair remains upon 
the distal moieties of the skin of the legs ; bullet-holes of exit and en- 
trance will be usually seen, and there may be an accidental rent or two 
of small size. 

"The Navajoes value these hides at a price varying from $1.50 to $2, 
depending upon the size and the need they have of the money. Squaws, 
I am told, never engage in manufacturing them, while the Indian boys 
learn the art at a very early age." 

SKIN-DRESSING AMONGr ABORIGINES OF OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. 

In Patagonia the skin of the guanaco is dried with the hair on in 
such a manner that when wet it retains its pliability and softness. This 
process of preserving skins seems to be peculiar to the Indian tribes, 
and is not unlike that by which bufi"alo robes, bear skins, and other 
articles of luxury and even necessity among us are prepared by the 
North American Indians. Guanaco skins are cut into pieces of all sizes 
and sewed into a thousand fanciful patterns, every workman originat- 
ing a style to suit himself. (Bourne, " Captive in Patagonia," p. 53.) 

The following is the method among the Fors in Darfur, Central 
Africa: As soon as the animal has been skinned the skins are scraped 
and put into- water in which okun (the bark of a tree) has been mixed. 
After several days they are taken out, scraped again with iron knives, 
and afterwards pegged out under the shade of a tree or under a shed 
made for the purpose. They are then rubbed and beaten with flat 
stones. At times they are also rubbed with butter. (Proc. Eoy. Soc. 
of Edinburgh, 1884-'85, p. 262.) 

The Wagandas are good tanners and manage to get their skins as 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 581 

soft as the best kid leather, lu some cases the hair is retiioved, but 
generally it is left on. They first dry the skins in the sun, then stretch 
them on a frame, and the inner surface is carefully scraped with a sharj) 
knife. They are then rubbed for a long time with flat heavy stones 
until quite smooth. This produces a fine grain. Butter or oil is then 
applied in considerable quantities and the skin once more placed in the 
sun. This latter process is repeated several times. Both men and 
women are employed in tanning. Some skins are dyed after the hair 
has been removed, others have patterns printed on them, and the thick 
buflalo hide, from which sandals are made, is ornamented by either 
a knife or a red-hot nail. Leather rope is sometimes used in house- 
building, if so, it is without tanning. Straps, traps, and nets are first 
tanned. (Proceedings Eoyal Soc, Edinburgh, i8Sl-'86, p. 730.) 

Friendly Islanders remove the hair and entrails of the hog with 
knives of split bamboo, also used in carving cooked pig. Nutka Sound, 
iron, knife, chisel, mallet, polisher. (Cook.) 

In making an opossum rug the Yarra tribe employ some skill and 
knowledge. In the first place, it is necessary to select good, sound, 
well-clothed skins. These, as they are obtained, are stretched on a 
piece of bark and fastened down by wooden or bone pegs, and kept there 
nntil they are dry. They are then well scraped with mussel-shell or a 
chip of basalt, dressed into proper shape, and sewn together. (H. B. 
Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i, 1878, p. 271.) 

THE SCRAPER, 

Whenever the savage has come in contact with the whites he has 
been quick to substitute iron for stone in his arrow-heads, knives, etc. 
Not so with his scraper. Indeed the white man keeps up the use of 
stone, glass, etc., in his modern tannery. In some respects these im- 
plements are the most interesting example of the history of the civiliza- 
tion of man. They may not actually be the earliest implement made or 
used, but they have been the longest in use. We might despair of ex- 
plaining their extreme antiquity. 

They commence to appear with the earliest age of man and have con- 
tinued in use to the present day, and are essentially the same instru- 
ment now as at the beginning. Their use was all but universal among 
the prehistoric peoples of North America, but they were equally uni- 
versal in the paleolithic era. They were the principal implement of the 
early cave dwellers in western Europe and so continued through all the 
other prehistoric ages. The}^ extend through all time among all peoples 
and have figured in all civilizations. Neither in form nor substance did 
it change perceptibly during the prehistoric ages. It is the one endur- 
ing implement that was also used by prehistoric man. It is therefore 
of the utmost importance for the archaeologist who wishes to rehabilitate 
a certain ancient culture to consider carefully all the elements of that 
culture which crystallize around this little implement. He may have in 



582 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

his cabinet a few pieces of stone which he labels "scrapers." At once 
in looking at them there springs upon the imagination of the philosophic 
student visions of clothing, houses, beds, farniturs, boats, lines for all 
conceivable purposes, the paraphernalia of state, ceremony and religion, 
the garniture of the dead. 

We may now pay attention to particular examples. Laying aside for 
the moment flaying, sharpening, cutting, and sewing tools, the reader is 
invited to look especially at the collection of scrapers in the U. S. Na- 
tional Museum. (Plates LXYII-XCIII.) 

Under this general table have been grouped together all of those 
aboriginal implements which belong to the tanner's craft. They are 
foand in all the countries where man has used the depilated skins 
of animals for any purpose whatever. In the American Continent this 
region is bounded on the north, only by the line of uninhabited territory. 
It extends southward through Greenland, Alaska, Canada, and the 
United States. The warm climate of- middle America requires the sub- 
stitution of vegetable clothing, so that the scraper is no longer a neces- 
sity. The essential elements of a scraper are its grip or handle and its 
working portion or blade. In the first scrapers the blade and grip were 
one. Indeed the Little Lake, Ooncow, and Redwood Indians used for- 
merly the dried rib of a large mammal, and now think there is nothing 
better than the rib of a steer without any change of form. (Plates 
LXXXIV, fig. 3.) This implement is caused to vary in structure by the 
following conditions: (1) The natural supply of material. (2) The skins 
to be manipulated. (3) The tribal technique. (4) The culture grade of 
the i^eople. 

Even among the Eskimo one can see how in the change of location 
slate, chert, and jade replace one another. This is a universal law of 
industries. 

Again, to prepare a seal-skin for the Bidarka demands a different 
treatment and tool from those required in producing the soft product of 
the antelope hide by the Xavajo. 

Not so well as in language, nevertheless, in a marvelous degree, the 
history of a people is written in their implements and industries. Tribes 
have their own ways of doing things. A museum curator has reason 
to be thankful for this every day, owing to the careless manner in which 
many of his acquisitions are labeled. 

Again, the nicety of the tool is a sure guarantee of the status of a 
people. The cylindrical scrapers are variously made. A segment from 
the hollow base of a walrus tusk, a strip of antler bent into the form of 
a hoop and properly lashed, or a strip of the same material strained to 
the form of a horseshoe, has a cable of raw-hide stretched between the 
calks of the shoe. In all of these, one edge of the cylinder is sharpened 
to a chisel edge to increase its efficiency. The cup-shaped scraper made 
of walrus ivory is often labeled in collections as a vessel, but a slight 
inspection will show that it is a veritable tool. The shape is that of a 
low oblong pan, not over 3 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch high. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 583 

This is grasped in the baud, bottom up, aud drawn across the hide until 
a quantity of fat is secured, which is deftly conveyed to the stone lamp 
or some convenient receptacle. (Plates LXXX-LXXXI.) 

In connection with the making of moccasin is the art of tanning 
deer-skins. It is done with the brain of the deer, the tanning properties 
of which, according to tradition, were discovered by accident. The 
brain is mingled with moss, to make it adhere sufiticiently to be formed 
into a cake, which is afterwards hung by the fire to dry. It is thus 
preserved for years. When the deer skin is fresh, the hair, and also 
the grain of the skin are taken oflf, over a cylindrical beam, with a 
wooden blade or stone scraper. A solution is then made by boiling a 
cake of the brain in water, and the moss, which is of no use, being re- 
moved, the skin is soaked in it for a few hours. It is then wrung out 
and stretched, until it becomes dry and pliable. Should it be a thick 
one, it would be necessary to repeat the process until it becomes 
thoroughly i^enetrated by the solution. The skin is still porous and 
easily torn. To correct both, a smoke is made, and the skin placed over 
it in such a manner as to inclose it entirely. Each side is smoked in 
this way uutil the pores are closed, and the skin has become thoroughly 
toughened, with its color changed from white to a kind of brown. They 
also use the brain of other animals, and sometimes the backbone of the 
eel, which, pounded up and boiled, possesses nearly the same properties 
for tanning. Bear-skins were never tanned. They were scraped aud 
softened, after which they were dried, and used without removing the 
hair, either as an article of aj^parel or as a mattress to sleep upon. 
(Lewis H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, 1851, pp. 361, 362.) 

After flaying the seal, the Eskimo often finds the inner surface of the 
skin coated with fat, and the first operation is to remove this by means 
of a special tool, which we may call the fat-scraper. By means of this 
the fat is scraped clean from the hide and placed in the soap-stone lamp, 
for which purpose some of the forms are specially adapted. These im- 
I)lements occur in the Eskimo area all the way from Ungava to Kodiak 
and are of three forms, the spoon-shaped, the cylindrical, and the cup- 
shaped scraper. The simplest form is a segment of reindeer scapula 
{Rangifer tarandus), so cut as to have the inferior border at the back of 
the knife aud the thin part between this border and the spine for the 
blade. This implement is also used for scaling and opening salmon and 
is a most efficient tool. Almost as simple as the foregoing, is a fat- 
scraper made of the split antler of the reindeer. The spongy part is 
scraped out and the borders brought to the proper edge. Some speci- 
mens of this type are ingeniously worked out, so as to have one of the 
small prongs for a handle, while the spoon or scraping portion is from 
the split portion of the antler. Bits of walrus-tusks are also carved 
into the shape of a long-bladed spoon. From the long spoon-shaped 
scraper, branches off, in the region between Behrings Strait and Norton 
Sound, a very dainty ladle-vshaped implement with projections on the. 



584 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

hinder margin to lit the fingers. This is a very effective tool, both in 
its grip and the handiuess with which its contents may be conveyed to 
the lamp, (Plate LXIX.) 

There is not so great a variety of apparatus in the hand of the abo- 
riginal leather worker as will be found at present in possession of the 
civilized craftsmen, yet there are several classes of tools worthy of at- 
tention. 

The pre-Columbian butcher's or flaying knife has not been sufficiently 
studied. This will form the subject of a subsequent chapter. 

The leather cutting knife is also worthy of careful study. Among 
the Eskimo collections it goes by the name of woman's knife or ulu. 
Among our modern industries this peculiar Eskimo form has a curious 
history. When women ceased to be leather workers and went into the 
kitchen they carried the ulu with them, but transferred it to another 
function, that of meat chopping. On the other hand, when men became 
leather workers, they borrowed this same implement from the women, 
and it may be seen any day in the saddler's shop. All of these woman's 
knives have crescent-shaped or"*plano-convex blades set in handles of 
wood, musk-ox horn, antler, walrus ivory, and other substances peculiar 
to each region. The blades are of slate, jade, or metal and are kept 
sharp by rubbing with the incisor tooth of a beaver. Now there is no 
tool more common in our collections than this same knife. It is safe to 
say that no Eskimo girl or woman is without one or more. 

As we come further south the chipped thin blade takes the place of 
the smooth blade of the Eskimo, but only in very restricted areas has 
any observer reported the Indians as using stone blades for cutting 
leather. 

, Seeing the great numbers of this particular tool among modern sav- 
ages, it is incumbent upon the archaeologist to look out among his 
specimens, the scissors, the shoemaker's knife, and the saddler's knife of 
pre-historic peoples. He will probably find them among the boxes he 
has been labeling spear-heads. 

The north Alaskan Eskimo type of scrapers consists of a grip more 
or less fitted to the hand and a chipped blade, with a varying length 
of shaft between them. In the handle the different type-forms grow 
out of the provisions made for accommodating the thumb, the first 
two fingers, the last two fingers, and the palm of the workman. 

In the front end of this handle the blade is inserted in a rude socket; 
the rear of the handle slopes down like a Derby hat to form the palm 
rest. On the left side is the thumb groove, on the upper side are 
the first finger grooves, on the right side and bottom is a great sweeping 
excavation which maybe called the finger pocket. On grasping one 
of these implements one is struck with the ingenuity with which every 
part of the hand is brought into its maximum activity and every 
necessity of the operation provided for. (Plates LXXII to LXXIX.) 

The palm is provided with a nicely rounded surface for pushing, the 

\ 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSINfi. 585 

first fiugerfs with the best facility tor bearing dowu, the thumb tor 
guiding-, and the last two fingers for pulling the tool back, and at the 
same time they are protected from injury by the hide beneath. 

The student of technology is at every moment astonished to see how 
the Eskimo, wherever he sets out to invent, leaves nothing to be de- 
sired as regards facility. Remember, also, that as we go southward 
and get away from the walrus, the scraper handle is made of wood, 
and losing the graceful proportions of its northern relative, grows 
more and more like the tool of the southern Indians. 

Typical Eskimo scraper handles seem to be divided into two classes, 
even in the same locality, for which no reason is assigned. 

One class is characterized by an under-cut extending quite sym- 
metrically across the under side, and the material has some uniformity 
of thickness, as in a ladle. In most of these the grip descends to 
its base in the rear almost vertically, and in none of them is there 
any considerable tail- piece. The finger grooves, except in a few aber- 
rant forms, are extremely shallow, and the outline above much curved. 

The other class is characterized b}^ an undercut which primarily 
does not extend across the under side. The impression on a soft 
surface is quite similar to that of a human foot without toes. In 
some specimens the thumb side of the bottom is notched out some- 
what, but this has no functional connection with the real under-cut. 

Now, in all the specimens of this type the tail-piece is more or less 
pronounced. The finger grooves run the whole gamut of profundity, 
from a shallow groove to deep pockets in which half of each finger 
is buried. In outline this class is more parallel-sided. 

No literature is at hand upon the subject, but from the manner in 
which these implements are poised it would seem that they go in 
pairs, as the jack-plane and smoothing plane, the spoon shaj)ed tool 
serving for the rough or first process, the flat-bottomed class for finer 
work in finishing. But this is only guessing. 

Every one who has handled a series of these implements has been 
astonished at the diminutive hands of the workwomen who have wielded 
them. To dress the hide is woman's work, but the men also have small 
hands. Again, while I have found three left-handed throwing-sticks 
in a hundred; in more than a hundred scrapers I have never seen one 
left-handed. 

Scraper blades among the northwestern Eskimo are made from a 
plano-convex spall of black chert, jasper, etc., kept flat on the under 
face aTid chipped into shape on the upper face. The cutting edge is 
rounded and chisel-shaped, and is usually the broadest part of the blade. 
The general outline varies from circular, or even a flattened ellipse 
through infinite varieties, to an oblong parallelogram rounded at either 
end. Indeed, one and the same blade may be all of these forms at 
various periods of its existence by a process now to be explained. 

One of the commonest tools in ethnotechnic cabinets is the stone 



586 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 

chipper of bone used iu formiug the edges of arrow-heads, spear-heads, 
scrapers, etc. The writer has only recently learned the indispensable 
character of this tool. In the first place every chipped implement after 
being separated from the parent block is made out and out with one of 
them. But this is only the beginning. The writer has lately learned 
that the hunter and the leather- worker are never without one, and they 
bring it into requisition with a frequency which reminds one of the old 
plantation slave sharpening his scythe every few minutes, to get a rest. 

Lieutenant Stoney, speakiug of his experience at Kotzebue Sound, 
says that tue leather-worker is incessantly touching up his scraper 
edge with the chipper, and that in time he wears it out to a mere stub. 
This constant sharpening also accounts for the fact that few specimens 
show signs of great wear. It is important to repeat this, that the con- 
stant use of the edging tool rapidly wears down the scraper blade and 
keeps the edge sharp. This accounts for the great difference in the 
length of the blades in our cabinets and for the fact that they show so 
little sign of use. 

A very old skin-scraper, such as are now found only in the old graves, 
is made of stone, with a wooden handle, which is fastened to the stone 
by means of a strip of whalebone. Another and a later pattern is 
made from the scapula of the reindeer. A better idea of its manufac- 
ture can be got from the sketch than by a description. Such scrapers 
are still iu use, but serve as a sort of auxiliary to a scraper made 
from a tin can, resembling a little scoop in shape and having a wooden 
handle. This is the style of scraper made at the present day and is 
by far tbe most effective instrument of the three. (Boas, VI An. Rep. 
Bur. Ethnol., Figs. 465, 466, 468.) 

The manner of using these scrapers is. to take the skin iirmly in the 
left hand and putting the knee or foot upon the lower part of it, hold 
it securely while the scraper is worked with the right haud, pushing 
downward with some force. If the skins are very dry they are some- 
what softened by rubbing with the hands, or even chewing the most 
stubborn parts. They continue using these tools upon a hide till it 
gains the desired pliability. 

After removing the fat with a muscle shell, the skins are tendered to 
the men, and especially to the guests, as a piece of civility to chew or 
gnaw betwixt meals. This is esteemed a delicacy. Then the skins are 
macerated or steeped in the urine tub. After that they aredried in the 
air a little and finally milled to perfection by their teeth. They make 
their thin light undergarments of thebacks of the sea-fowl skins 5 their 
warm winter garments of the bellies, and their fine holiday dress of the 
necks, and these they commonly turn feathers outward. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 



587 



List of specimens in the U. S. National Alnseiini on tvhich thin paper is based, shouing the 
catalofiue number, the material and shape of the implement, the place or tribe from which 
it was procured, the length, and the collector. ■ 

FAT-SCRAPERS. 



Number. 



36501 
37967 
44771 
44987 
44988 
44989 
44990 
55911 
56603a 
56603b 
63351 
63352 
53353 
63354 
63355 
63356 
63642 
63666 
63667 
63800 
63833 
63900 
89251 
89253 
89255 
89258 
127508 
127652 
127791 
127892 
127896 



Material. 



Antler. 
....do .. 
....do .. 
Ivory . . 
Antler . 
Ivory . . 
....do .. 
Antler . 
Ivory . . 
...do.. 
...do .. 
...do.. 
...do .. 
...do-. 
...do .. 
...do.. 
Antler . 
Ivory . . 
...do.. 
Antler. 
Ivory . . 
Antler . 
Ivory . . 
...do.. 
...do.. 
...do .. 
Antler . 
...do .. 
...do.. 
...do .. 
...do .. 



Shape. 



Spoon .. 
....do... 
Bow 

Ring.... 

Bow 

Ring.... 
....do ... 
Hoop . . . 
Dish.... 
....do ... 
....do ... 
...do ... 
...do ... 
...do ... 
....do ... 
...do ... 

Bow 

Ring 

...do ... 
Spoon . . . 
Dish.... 
Spoon .. 
Dish.... 
...do... 
...do ... 
...do ... 
Spoon . . 
Hoop . . . 
...do ... 
...do ... 
Spoon . 



Place. 



Kushiniik 

Chalitmnt 

Sledge Island 

...do 

...do 

...do 

...do , 

Bristol Bay 

Point Barrow 

...do 

St. Lawrence Island . 
...do 



...do 

...do 

...do 

Cape Wankarem. 
Diomede Island. . 

...do 

Point Hope 

...do 

Diomede Island. . 

Point Barrow 

...do 

...do 

...do 

Togiak River 

...do 

Kushinuk 

Nakneek 

Kotzebue Sound . 



Length. Collector. 



Inches. 
OJ 

7 
3i 



Nelson. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
McKay. 
Ray. 

Do. 
Nelson. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Ray. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Applegate. 
Johnson. 

Do. 
Fisher. 
Stoney. 



HIDE-SCRAPERS. 

(Used for cutting tlesh and hair from a dried skin. The handle, blade and lashing indicate environment, 
skill, and amount of contact with the white race.] 



Num- 
ber- 



10398 
24350 
24359 
24361 
24689 
33084 
33086 
33090 
33003 
33094 
34083 



Material. 



Wood, bone, sinew 

Wood, slate, spruce root 

...do 

Wood, slate 

Wood, slate, rawhide 

...do 

...do 

...do 

Ivory, flint 

Wood 

Wood, stone, twine 



34084 1 



do 



Place. 



Igloolik 

Norton Sound 

St. Michael's Island. 

Norton Sound 

...do 

...do 

...do 

Kegiktowik 

Norton Sound 

Kegiktowik 

Cumberland Gulf. . . 
...do 



Length. 



Inches. 



4| 
lU 
7i 
12i 
95 
3i 
Ci 
4J 
4 



Collector. 



Hall. 

Nelson. 

Turner. 

Do. 

Do. 
Nelson. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Kumlein. 

Do. 



588 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 
HIDE-SCRAPERS— Continued. 



Num- 
ber. 



34085 

37613 

37614 

38252 

38253 

38288 

38485 

38602 

38603 

38868 

38828 

3883S 

39062 

43228 

43405 

43408 

43886 

43927 

44086 

44140 

44180 

44357 

44085 

44084 

44982 

44983 

44984 

48623 

48624 

48625 

48626 

48627 

48882 

48941 

55910a 

559 10& 

55910c 

55910i 

55910e 

55910/ 

55910£r 

55910^ 

55910i 

55910fc 

55910Z 

56548 

56549 

63559 

63655 

63851 

63852 

63853 

63854 

63856 



Material. 



Place. 



Wood, stone inserted 

Ivory, no blade 

...do 

Wood, flint, spruce root 

Wood, slate, spruce root 

Ivory, no blade 

Wood, slate, spruce root , 

Wood, slate, sinew twine 

Wood, slate, rawhide 

Wood, slate, spruce root 

Wood, celt, rawhide 

Crutch of wood, slate, spruce root. . 

Wood, flint, rawhide 

Ivory, flint 

Wood, slate 

Wood, slate, rawhide 

Crutch of wood, slate, rawhide 

Wood, slate, spruce root 

Wood, slate 

Wood, no blade 

Ivory, no blade 

Wood, no blade | Norton Bay . . 

Wood, flint inserted I Koyuk River 

Ivory, no blade do 

Wood, slate, rawhide 

...do 

...do 

Ivory, no blade 

...do 

Ivory, flint inserted 

Ivory, no blade 

...do 

Wood, slate, spruce root 

....do 

....do 



Cumberland Gulf... 

Nubviak 

Kotzebue Sound 

Lake Tukton 

...do 

...do 

...do 

Cape Vancouver 

...do 

Kuskokvim 

Big Lake 

...do 

Norton Sound 

Oonalakleet 

Cape Prince Wales. 

...do 

Mission Alaska 

Nubviak 

Koyuk River 

Norton Bay 

Cape Barby 



....do 

....do 

Wood, slate, rattan root 

Wood, .slate, spruce root 

...do 

Crutch of wood, slate, rawhide 

....do 

....do 

...do 

Ivory, no blade 

...do 

....do 

..do 

Ivory, flint inserted 

....do 

...do 

Ivory, no blade 

....do 



Sledge Island 

...do 

...do 

Kotzebue Sound. 

...do 

...do 

...do 

...do 

Lake Yukon 

Sabotnisky 

Bristol Bay 

...do 



....do 

....do 

...do 

....do 

....do 

....do 

...do 

..-.do..-. 

....do 

Point Barrow, 
.-..do 

Point Hope.. . 

...do 



.do 
-do 
.do 
-do 
.do 



Length. 


Collector. 


Inches. 
3| 


Kumlein. 


44 


Nelson. 


2i 


Do. 


6i 


Do. 


6* 


Do. 


3t% 


Do. 


10 


Do. 


18| 


Do. 


17i 


Do. 


19 


Do, 


124 


Do. 


17 


Do. 


6 


Do. 


H 


Do. 


7 


Do. 


4i 


Do. 


16| 


Do. 


111 


Do. 


6i 


Do. 


5A 


Do. 


5i 


Do. 


■ 41 


Do. 


41 


Do. 


4 


Do. 


7| 


Do. 


7A 


Do. 


7 


Do. 


2S 


Do. 


3i 


Do. 


4f 


Do. 


31 


Do. 


5J 


Do. 


VJ 


Do. 


111 


Do. 


15i 


McKay. 


13J 


Do. 


12| 


Do. 


15i 


Do. 


16 


Do. 


15| 


Do. 


16* 


Do. 


13^ 
14 


Do. 
Do. 


145 


Do. 


16i 

Si 


Do. 
Ray. 


44 


Do. 


3f 


Nelson. 


4 


Do. 


3| 


Do. 


31 


Do. 


45 


Do. 


n 


Do. 


3J 


Do. 



ABORIGINAL SKIN-DRESSING. 
GRAINING TOOL. WITH FINE TEETH AT THE END. 



589 



Num- 
ber. 



Material. 



I 
I 
14196 Iron Sioux. 

■19894 Bone Utes . 

31316 do Pueblos. 

89924 i do Ungavas. 

8992.5 j Bone aud iron do 

89'J27 i Wood and iron ; do 

90246 1 Bone , i do 

I I 



Tribe. 



Length. Collector. 



Inches. 




15 


Palmer. 


Ti 


Powell. 


lU 


Yarrow, 


12i 


Turner. 


145 


Do. 


13 


Do. 


13 


Do. 



BEAMING TOOLS OF BONE, TOR REMOVING HAIR, 



Num- 
ber. 



11891 
19881 
38244 
38490 
55912 
89928 
89930 
90248 
90248 



Material. 



Place or people. 



Collector, 



Bone Pai Utes 

do do 

do Madisonville 

do I Kuskovim 

"Wood and iron Bristol Bay 

Bone ! Ungavas 

do ! do 

do do 

do do 




ADZE-SHAPED SCRAPERS WITH IRON BLADES. 



Num- 
ber. 



1402 
6336 
6337 

6896 
6897 
S064 
9852 
11100 
11226 
19882 
198i:3 
31317 
130622 



Handle. 



Tribe. 



Antler Sioux 

...do Coniancbes ... 

...do I Gros Ventres . 

...do I do 



Wood Comanches 

...do do 

A ntler j Sioux 

...do J Utes 

...do Crows 

...do Pai Utes 

...do I Utes 

...do do 

Wood Pueblos 

Antler Crows 



Length.! Collector. 



Inches. 




14i 


Blackmore. 


11 


Berlanrtier. 


U 


Matthews. 


m 


Gray aud 




Matthews. 


12 


Palmer. 


11 


Do. 


12 


Gardner. 


Hi 


Lyon. 


13i 


Stevenson. 


Hi 


Powell. 


9 


Do. 


llj 


Do. 


11 


Wheeler. 


14i 


Allen. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXI. 




Navajo Indian skinning Deer. (After Shufeidt.) 



Report of National iviuseum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXII. 




Navajo Indian removing Hair from Deer-skin. (After Shufeidt) 



Report of Nat-onal Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXIII. 




Navajo Indian wringing Water from a Deer-skin. (After Shufeidt.) 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXIV. 



1 



^^fei^f 5i*'=** e=~^E-iSir;s!- 



:^' 

















Navajo Indian pulling Deer-skin into Shape after wringing. (After Shufeidt.) 



Report of Nat'ona; Museum 1889 — Mason 



Plate LXV. 



"2^^ — -. o'^-^-Vij-r,. 



"'5^>-y*>^_^ ^ 



^:^^/: 






^^';,^^/4i^ 



i^ \ 



V VA "3 



'6 y-Vl,,,,/ 



.^::^,„,, M<" ^^ vis.jfc.i'.(,*.'»l*#^''i'^' 



PiltaMC^|»lK™A.iJ 



v^V*^ - 







S- ""*^J:i^%^V>4\fi-- 



J 



Navajo Indian applying Brains to Deer-skin to make it soft. (After Shufeidt.) 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXVI. 



■^ 



f^n 



' AmiiiiA!^^<4^m^i^x i-^v^A'^^^'" 



^ --V -■'<l!S^\ 



- /-/'^ 



^"1"'/^...^//'' 




^^^^.-^^^ ' ^ 







Navajo Indian finishing Deer-skin by stretching it. (After Shufeidt.) 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXVII. 

Fig. 1. Beaming Tool. Made of the tibia of a musk-ox. The bone has been hacked 
in so as to have the broad inner part of the posterior wing for a rest and 
the middle of the front portion for an edge. The natural form of the 
bone lends itself splendidly to this method of treatment. Compare this 
with Fig. 3, PL LXVII, and Fig. 1, PI. LXXXIV. 

Cat. No. 90248, U. S. N. M. Indians of Ungava, Canada. Collected by Lucien M. 
Turner. 

Fig. 2. Beaming Tool. Made from the leg bone of the reindeer. Only haK of the 
specimen is given, but enough remains to show the absolute similarity 
between this and the great number of broken implements of the same 
sort found in the Madisonville cehietery, Ohio. See next figure. The 
perforation on the lower side is common in many Eskimo tools. 

Cat. No. 89488, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow. Collected by Capt. P. H. Ray, 
U. S. Army. 

Fig. 3. Beaming Tool. Made from the leg bone of a deer. The bone has been cut 
away so as to afford two edges for removing the hair in skin working. 
This specimen comes from the celebrated cemetery at Madisonville, Ohio, 
and is here reproduced to show the great similarity of form in various 
parts of the country. 

Cat. No. 43076, U. S. N. M. Graves of MadisonviUe, Ohio. Collected by Dr. C. L. 
Metz. 



Report of National Museum, 1889,— Mason. 



Plate LXVII. 






' HM 



M 




1 1^ 



Beaming Tools. 



• EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXVIII. 

Fig. 1. Grainer. Of the humerus of the, musk-ox. The upper joint furnishes the 
handle and the hard portion of the bone cut diagonally forms the edge. 
Fine serrations on the edge furnish the graining surface. 

Cat. No. 90246, U. S. N. M. Eskimo and Indians of Ungava, Canada. Collected by 
Lucien M. Turner. 

Fig. 2. Graining Tool. Handle of pine. Blade of iron, finely toothed and lashed 
to the shaft with a buckskin strip. A thong fastened to the top of the 
handle passes ai'ound the wrist and catches the force of the blow. This 
is an excellent device for giving emphasis to the work of the tool. 

Cat. No. 89927, U. S. N. M. Eskimo and Indians of Ungava, Canada. Collected by 
Lucien BI. Turner. 

Fig. 3. Grainer. Made from the "bit" of a plane and finely serrated. In use this 
is placed on the primitive bone grainer and lashed with buckskin. 

Cat. No. 90260, U. S. N. M. Eskimo and Indians of Ungava, Canada. Collected by 
Lucien M. Turner. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason, 



Plate LXVIII. 




ml 



Graining Tools. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXIX. 

Fig. 1. FA^SCKAPEK. Of antler. Much larger than the examples from the west. 
The antler IB first split. About one-third of the piece retains the core to 
form a grip, and from the remainder the core is scraped away and the 
edge of the hard portions sharpened 

'^^u:ie?S:?uL":^- ^"^^-^-^^^'^-'- Of Ungava, Canada. Collected b. 
Fig. 2. SCBAPKR. Probably for removing fat. Reproduced here from Captain 
^. , ^ Holms celebrated work on East Greenland. ^ 

"■ ■ '"«:«„ °Jc""- ^ "'■"> <" "- '-" ^""' "« "- "» '— pan 

0.t. NO. wr, a S. N. M. Eskimo o( leloollk. Collected by Capt. 0. T. Hall, 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXIX. 




^ "• i 



V 




,;■/,{ .,..11,', 




Fat-scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXX. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Blade of bone, with edge resembling that of a gouge, fastened 
to a pine handle by a seizing of sinew. The edge is very smooth and 
worn, and the specimen must have been used more as a beaming tool. 
The drawing marked (2) is a precisely similar form dug from the ash-pit 
graves of Madisonville. The attention of archaeologists is here called to 
the fact that all the specimens from that celebrated cemetery are allied to 
modern northern implements. 

Cat. No. 10397, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Iglulik. Collected by Capt. C. F. Hall. 

Fig. 3. Scraper. Handle of soft wood, faintly and rudely cut in and grooved like 
the beautiful ivory specimens from Alaska. Thumb groove, fore and 
middle finger grooves atop; ring finger groove and undercut large; 
notch for finger, small. The blade is a dull celt of sandstone let half its 
length into a socket in the end of the handle. Length, 4 inches. 

Cat. No, 34084, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Cumberland Gulf. Collected by L. Kumlien. 
There are three examples of this type in the National Museum. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



PLATE LXX. 






Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXI. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of antler. Blade of iron driven into the end of the handle. 
The antler shows longitudinally the marks of the sand-saw. 

Cat. No. 2020, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Anderson River, Canada. Collected by B. R. 
Ross. 

Fig. 2. Scraper Blade. Of dark chert. 

Cat. No. 36s!90, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Cape Vancouver. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXXI 





Scrapers. 



i 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXII. 

Fig. 1 (a, 6, and c). Scraper. Long, large-sized handle of si^ruce. Thumb groove 
for a large digit, deep and wide. Groove for forefinger, pocket for mid- 
dle finger, undercut nearly across the bottom. Tailpiece rectangular, 
thin, and nearly flat. Unlike most other imi)lements of this class the 
specimen has for a blade a thin scale of sandy shale. 

Cat. No. 89309, U. S. N. BI. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. 
P. H. Ray, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXXII. 





y7/;rr*5iiBCTwisPrw<?w*jT •^rT^'^ 




Scraper. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXIM. 

Fig. 1 (a and b). Scraper. Of walrus ivory. Thumb groove slight. Fingers sepa- 
rated by a ridge three and three-quarters inches in length. Undercut 
quite across and extending into a spoon-shape cavity of the palm rest, 
which is pierced for a suspending cord. This is a broad, heavy, and 
effective imi^lement. 

Cat. No. 89321, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. There are ho grooves for digits. The under- 
cut extends quite across and the implement rests on its front and rear 
edge. The palm rest declines at an angle of 90 degrees and terminates 
abruptly without horizontal appendix. The blade, of reddish-brown jas- 
per, is held in its socket by a washer of rawhide. 

Cat. No. 89313, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Armv. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXII 




\ 



' ""^-S™,, ^*, 







la 





Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXIV. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. A delicate, mottled specimen, shaped in front 
like the incisor of a horse. Thumb groove very slightly and delicately 
hollowed. There is an undercut on this side, but it serves no earthly pur- 
pose. In this and many other specimens this cut seems to be a fashion 
without an aim. The finger grooves are continuous to the margin next 
the stone blade and are models' of graceful carving. The undercuts on 
both sides are nearly alike, causing the implement to rest on the front and 
rear. This is one of the most beautiful pieces in the Museum. 

Cat. No. 89317, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 
Fig. 2. Scraper. Of walrus ivory, resting upon the front and tailpiece. The thumb 
groove a shallow pit. Front finger grooves slight hollows. Undercut 
extending entirely across, but much smaller on the thumb side. Blade 
of black chert, held in place by a packing of cord much broader than the 
handle. 

Cat. No. 89315, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 3. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. Heavy and high arched. The specimen is 
new and is ornamented with incised lines coarsely fringed. This speci- 
men has never been used and is the only one in the National Museum 
with the slightest ornamentation, It rests upon the front margin of the. 
blade socket and the edge of the declined tailpiece and is singularly 
lifted up. Thumb groove deep, bordered above by a long ear-shaped 
piece in high relief. The finger grooves are long, narrow, and deep. The 
undercut is peculiar, that portion in which the fingers fit being sepa- 
rated from the more shallow portion on the left by a sharp offset. The 
ear-shaped projection will be noticed faintly on several other specimens. 

Cat. No. 89314, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. CoUected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXIV. 






Scrapers. 



, EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXV. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. The specimen lies flat, touching a horizontal 
surface all around its undei'side. The last two specimens, on the con- 
trary, touch only at the front and rear. Thumb groove a deep fviiTow, 
almost concealing the digit. Finger grooves two slight cup cuttings for 
the tips. Undercut not extending all the way across, so that the lower 
margin under the thumb touches the ground all the way from front to 
rear. 

Cat. No. 89316, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle of wood. Flat bottomed. The material is so much cut 
away that the thumb pocket, the upper and the side finger pockets all 
communicate, and the thvimb groove at the end opens into the blade 
socket. 

Cat. No. 89.310, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. OoUeeted by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 3. Scraper. A clumsy specimen of spruce wood resting upon a flat base, 
scarcely affected by the undercut. The thumb groove wide and for the 
first joint a deep pocket. Upper finger groove only for the forefinger. 
For the middle finger there is a separate undercut pocket and for the 
last two fingers the midercut is deeply pocketed. The front is precipi- 
tate, 2 inches high; the rear prolonged into a flat tailpiece, broader than 
the rest of tlie implement. There are a few specimens of this class made 
of wood, unique in form, but there are no others with precipitate front. 

t Cat. No. 89311, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 

H. Ray, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXXV. 







Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXVI. 

Fig. 1 (a and b). Scraper. Handle or grip of wood, with deep pocket grooves for 
the digits. The thumb is almost hidden in its cavity. On top there are 
three grooves for the fore, the middle, and the ring finger, respectively, 
and a verj^ deep pocket into which the ends of all three are concealed. 
The little finger fits into a deep pocket on the right side and there is not 
the slightest shadow of undercut, the lower surface resembling exactly 
that of a carpenter's plane. The blade, of drab flint, is neatly inserted 
into the front and packed with canvas. A blue bead inserted on top in 
front of the finger pocket is the only ornament. 

Cat. No. 63848, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Hope, Alaska. Collected by E. W. 
Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXVI. 





Scraper. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXVII. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of spruce. Thumb groove fitted to both phalanges of 
the thumb. Finger grooves slight. Undercut only two-thirds across 
the bottom, giving the implement a rest along the entire left side. The 
top is arched high up and there is a slight bell-shaped tailpiece. Blade 
of black chert, secured with a leather washer into a grooved socket — that 
is, half the depth of the mortise is cut out on the sides. This would fit a 
blade of any width. 

C; t. No. 63847, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Hope, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle of hard wood. Thumb groove deep and long, over which 
an ear-shaped projection is carved, as in Plate LXXIV, Fig. 3, from Point 
Barrow. Finger groove rounded out to give the appearance of a skull 
and terminating 1 inch behind the stone blade. Undercut not wide and 
hook-shaped in base outline. The tailpiece is gouged out like the rim of 
a bell. This form is quite an oddity and leads to the conclusion that each 
implement was made to fit the hand of the workman. This being the 
case they reveal as great a diversity in the size of Eskimo hands as exists 
among the white race. 

Cat. No. 63849, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Hope. Alaska Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 8. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. A very graceful old handle, much discolored, 
resting on the front or haft and the broad flattened tailpiece. Thumb 
groove shallow, but exactly fitting and bounded above by the ear-shaped 
ridge so prominent in Plate LXXIV, Fig. 3, from Point Barrow. Finger 
grooves extending to the stone blade. Undercut consists of two distinct 
parts, that for the last two fingers and a smaller one under the thumb, 
a common characteristic, but serving only to remove useless material. 
The tailpiece is long, broad, and gracefully curved into the grip. 

Cat. No. C385.5, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Point Hope, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXVII. 





Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION pF PLATE LXXVIII. 

Fig. 1 (o and b). Scraper. Handle of spruce wood, with marked characteristics, 
resting on the front a,nd long tailpiece and slightly arched up in the mid- 
dle. Thumb groove profound, finger grooves moderately deep. Under- 
cut two-thirds the distance across the bottom. Between this and the 
blade is a cul-de-sac for the third or ring finger. The grijj is high arched 
and the flat tailpiece pi-ojects abruptly from its base. The socket is 
broad and intrudes slightly on the sides. Split by a stone blade, the old 
device of a groove and lashing has been resorted to. 

Cat. No. 127886, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Hotham Inlet, Alaska. Collected by Capt. 
P. H Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. A slender spoon-shaped handle. Thumb is 
scantily provided for and the finger grooves are mere shadows. The 
undercut is scalloped delicately on its side to receive the string and the 
middle finger. The socket is very broad and deep but entire on its mar- 
gin. There is a delicious continuity of curvature over the entire surface 
of this specimen, so that not a single sharp turn occurs anywhere except 
in the socket. 

Cat No. 48624, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. Collected by Capt. 
P. H. Ray, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Iviuseum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXVIII. 






Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXIX. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Of spruce wood. High arched on top and resting on its two 
ends. The thumb groove is deep and pocketed. Finger grooves deeply 
pocketed and divided by a thin partition. Undercut two-thirds across 
tlie bottom, wliicli is slightly arched up. Grip high arched and sub- 
tended by a narrow bell-shaped tailpiece, the margin of which is pro- 
longed. Socket a veiy deep mortise extending to the thumb and finger 
pockets. 

Cat. No. 64177, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Hotham Inlet, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Of walrus ivory. An abnormal specimen, made from the proxi- 
mal end of a walrus tusk. Evidently the maker racked his ingenuity to 
get the most out of his material. Provision for the thumb and first two 
fingers is made by the core cavity in front. The undercut trenches 
largely on the same cavity, which extends onward through the grip. The 
socket is mortised an inch deep. 

Cat. No. 64181, U'. S. N. M. Eskimo of Hotham Inlet, Alaska. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 3. Scraper. Handle of pine wood; blade of drab-colored chert; lashing of 
unshredded sinew, with washers of rawhide. This is a rude specimen, 
representing only the outline and commencement of the type characters 
in the one-handed scraper. There is no thumb groove on the side; no 
finger groove on the top. On the under face of the right-hand side are 
two very shallow grooves for the ring and little finger. The protection 
of the hand is secured by the angle of the handle. The blade has chip- 
pings only on the upper side. It is laid in a roughly gouged hollow, so 
as to bring its under surface flush with that of the handle. A Pawnee 
Indian informed the Avriter that the careless lashing on so many hafted 
tools is owing to the fact that the blade is continually taken out to be 
sharpened, whicli, tallies with Lieutenant Stoney's testimony. 

Cat. No. 43405, U. S. N, M. Eskimo of Cape Prince of Wales. Collected by Capt. P. 
H. Ray, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889 Mason. 



Plate LXXIX. 






Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXX. 

Fig, 1. Fat-scraper. Dish-shaped. Made from a section of wahais tusk. This 
form of scraper might easily be mistaken for a disli, but an examination 
of the edge shows tliat on one side at least it has been scraped down 
sharij. There are types of these scrapers — the dish-shaped, the hoop- 
shaped, the horseshoe-shaped, the knife or spoon shaped, the scoop- 
shaped, and the ring-shaped, and each shape has a definite locality. 

Cat. No. 63355, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of St. Lawrence Island. Collected by E. W. 
Nelson. 

Fig. 2, Fat-scraper. Of walrus ivory. Shaped like an old-fashioned milk skim- 
mer or a grocer's scoop. The form is quite graceful and the graceful 
ridges on the upper margin afford a firm grip to the hand. This form is 
in the Straits and Kotzebue. 

Cat. No. 63900. U. S. N. BI. Eskimo of Diomede Islands. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 
Fig. 3. Fat-scraper. Fine old specimen of discolored walrus ivory. Blade, ladle, 
or skimmer shaped. Two prongs carved to imitate bears' heads form the 
most convenient grip. 

Cat. No. Iiir896, U. S. N. BI. Eskimo of Kotzebue Sound. Collected by Lieut. G. M. 
Stoney, U. S. Navy. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXX. 




Fat-scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXI. 

Fig. 1. Fat-scraper. A strip of ivory 6 inches long, 1 inch wide, and shaped like a 
knife blade, one-eighth of an inch thick at the back, wliere it is also bent 
and held in position by a rawhide string passed once or twice across 
through holes in the ends of tlie ivory and then carefully wrapped around 
the cross strings. Its use is said to be for scraping fat from seal skins 
to be put in the soapstone lamps. 

Cat. No. 63642, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Cape Waiikarem. Collected by Capt. P. H.. 
Ray, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Fat-scraper. Made of a section of the lower end of a walrus tusk sawed 
off like a najDkin ring. The inner side being soft and the outer side hard, 
it is the easiest thing in the world to scrape away the soft part, so as to 
have an edge like the tooth of a rodent. Used to remove fat from skins 
before dressing them. This form of scraper is not found in the Museum 
collection except from Sledge Island and the Diomedes. 

Cat. No. 44990, U. S'. N. M. Eskimo of Sledge Island. CoUected by E. W. Nelson. 

Fig. 3. Fat-scraper. Made of a narrow, thin strip of antler bent in form of a 
horseshoe and held in place by a strip of rawhide passed backward and 
forward through two holes in each end and then wrapped in a neat coil 
across. The loop on the outside of the ends is neatly countersunk. One . 
margin of the antler strip is scraped to an edge from within, so as to pre- 
serve the outer hard portion for work. 

Cat. No. 44771, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Sledge Island. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889,— Mason. 



Plate LXXXl. 






Fat-scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXM. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of wood, blade a flat celt of schist let into the lower part 
of the handle neatly and lashed in place with spruce root. A very large 
but neatly made speciinen. It is an excellent example of transition 
between the short and the long handle. Place for the thumb is exca- 
vated; lift margin for the forefinger on the upper surface, and for the 
other three fingers underneath. The palm of the hand rests against the 
depressed end. 

Cat. No. 43937, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Norton Bay, Alaska Collected by E. W. 
Nelson. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. With wooden handle of medium length. The grip in its curve 
with the handle suggests a jjistol butt. The shaft is a long triangle and 
on the underside excavated to receive the celt-like blade of hard volcanic 
rock. This blade has a cliisel edge and is held in place by means of a 
thong of raw seal-hide fastened by tucking the end under. The attention 
of archseologists is especially called to the mounting and function of this 
polished blade with chisel edge, as they have many similar pieces in their 
cabinets. Length, 11:^ inches. 

Cat. No. 24689, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska. Collected by Lucien 
M. Turner. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXXII. 





Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXIII. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of wood, grip cylindrical, shaft triangular, expanding 
downward to fit neatly the blade of slate, which lies in a cut on the 
under side and is held in place by a neat lashing of fine rawhide string. 

Cat. No. 129216, U. S. N. M, Eskimo of St. Michaels, Alaska. Collected by Lucien 
M. Turner. 

Fig. 2. Scraper Handle. Of walrus ivory; very old. The noticeable marks are 
the economy of material, the smallness of the owner's hand, the slight 
grooves for thumb and first two fingers, and chiefly the spoon-shaped 
cavity beneath for the ring and the little finger. Length, 3^- inches. 

Cat. No. .33093, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska. Collected by E. W. 
Nelson, 

Fig. 3. Scraper. Handle of spruce wood. This is an interesting connecting link 
between the shaftless type and the long shafted type of the South. The 
shaft from the point of the thumb is about U inches; no finger grooves. 
Under cut two-thirds across. Grip a straight incline without tail piece. 

Cat. No. 44086, U. S. N, M. Eskimo of Koyuk River. Collected by Capt. P. H. Ray, 
U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate LXXXIII. 






Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXIV. 

Fig. 1. Fat-scraper. Made of the radius of the deer. The rounded front portion 
is cut away ^o as to furnish a rest on the ridge of the incurved portion, 
' and two edges, one on either side. The hard lower edge of tlie imiDle- 
nient is also ground to a chisel edge like that of a graining tool. Every 
portion of the implement affording a hard, bony surface has been ground 
to an edge. 

Cat. No. .38490, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Mission, Alaska. Collected by E. W, Nelson. 

Fig. 2. Fat-scraper. Of walrus ivory. Ingeniously carved so as to furnish a grip 

and a long opening for the thumb. One edge only is sharpened. The 

implement fits only the right hand and shows that the Eskimo scraped 

away from himself and not towards himself. 

Cat. No. 127508, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Togiak River, Alaska. Collected by I. Apple- 
gate. 
Fig. 3. Scraper. Made of the rib of a deer, with little or no modification of form. 
The Indians of California are said to use a rib in the same manner. 

Cat. No. 38844, U. S. N. BI. Eskimo of Mission, Alaska. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



ReDort of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXXIV. 




../I, I 







Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION-OF PLATE LXXXV. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of pine, quite old, slightly fitted to the hand. Blade of 
slate lashed to the handle roughly l)y a leather thong passing through a 
perforation. 

Cat. No. 127502, U. S. N . BI. Eskimo of Togiak River. Collected by I. Applegate. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle a curved piece of pine wood, pistol-shaped. Blade a 
ground celt of black chert, edge wedge-shaped, lashed to the handle Avith 
a splint of pine root. The blade is made to fit to the handle by a padding 
of grass. If the unknown may be explained by the known, this speci- 
men finds a function for many flat, wedge-shaped celts. 

Cat. No. 38253, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Lower Yukon. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



PLATE LXXXV. 





Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXVI. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle a long shaft of spruce with a grip formed by a slight 
natural beiid at the upper end.' Blade a thin celt of chert, with edge 
wedge-shaped, but the two sides are very much rounded; that is, in 
cross section the edge forms a letter V with one limb straight, the other 
curved outward. 

Cat. No. 38603. U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Cape Vancouver. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Fig. 2. Fat-scraper. Made of antler; the handle, one of the prongs, and the 
spoon-shaped blade scooped out of the columnar portion. This is a 
dainty implement for its work. 

Cat. No. 37967, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Chalitmute. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Fig. 3. Fat-scraper. Made of antler and used for removing the fat from bird and 
animal skins prior to the curing. The fat is preserved for the lamp. 
Length, 64 inches. 

Cat. No. .36501, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Kashunuk, north of Norton Sound, Alaska. 
Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXXVI. 




Scrapers. 



f\ 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXVII. 

Pig. 1. Scraper. Handle of wood 15 inches long. Grip a crutch handle mortised 
to the end of the shaft perpendicularly to the edge of the blade. Blade a 
long, narrow celt of schistose rock fitted to a shoulder of the shaft and 
held in place by a neat seizing of spruce root. The crutch handle is con- 
fined to Big Lake and the region around Bristol Bay. 

Cat. No. 38838, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Big Lake, Alaska. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle a natural curve of spruce wood. Blade a very wide celt 
of schistose rock, fitted to a notch in the handle, and held in place 
with a lashing of fine rawhide string. The unique feature of the speci- 
men is the disproportion between the blade and the handle. 

Cat. No. 38828, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Big Lake, Alaska. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXXVII. 



;)'/! 



xm 



Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXVIII. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle a forked stick of spruce with the bark still on. Blade a 
celt of hard slate fitted to a notch on the handle and held in place by a lash- 
ing of rattan. This seizing shows the happy faculty of the Eskimo in 
grasping every available thing that comes to his hands. 

Cat. No. 55910{«), U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Bristol Bay. Collected by C. L. McKay . 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle a natural curved stick of spruce. Blade a very long, 
smooth celt of schistose rock, set into a notch on the handle, 4 inches long 
and held in place by a seizing of spruce root. Rather a clumsy piece. 
Cat. No. 5.5910(e), U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Bristol Bay. Collected by C. L. McKay. 

Fig. 3. Beaming Tool. Made of a strip of hoop iron inclosed between two half 
cylinders of wood and held in place by seizing of pine root at the end. 
The iron is ground to an edge along one margin and the wood has been 
chamfered away to give the edge a chance to work. This is an excellent 
specimen, showing the hair in the interstices. 

Cat. No. 55912, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Bristol Bay. Collected by C. L . McKay. 



Report of National Museum, 1889. — Mason. 



Plate LXXXVIII. 



Scrapers. 



^.^^ 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE LXXXIX. ' 

Fig. 1. Fat-scraper. Made of a thin band of antlei- bent in form of a hoop, ends 
overlapping but not interlocked. Held in form by a rawhide string 
wrapped three times around the exterior. A unique specimen. 

Cat. No. 127792, U.S.N. BI. Eskimo of Nakneek, Alaska. Collected by W. J. Fisher. 

Fig. 2. Fat-scraper. Ingeniously made of a broad, thin strip of the outer crust 
of antler, wide in the middle and narrow at the ends. This strip is bent 
in shape of a truncated cone, and one end cut, arrow-shaped, is thrust 
through a triangular cut in the other end and tangled. Of course all this 
was done wlien the horn was softened. This type is confined to Bristol 
Bay. 

Cat. No. 55911, U. S. N. M. Eskimo of Bristol Bay. Collected by C. L. McKay. 



Report of National Museum, 1889— Mason 



Plate LXXXIX. 





Fat-scrapers 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XC. 

Fig. 1. Beaming Tool. Made from the tibia of a horse. There has been Httle or 
no modification of the bone. The fibula furnishes a most excellent 
natural edge for the tool. 

Cat. No. 19891, U. S. N. M. Piute Indians, soutliern Utah. Collected by Maj. J. W. 

Powell. 

Fig. 2. Graining Tool. Made of the tibia of the deer. At the middle part, where 

the bone is hardest, it is cut in two diagonally so as to expose a square 

edge on the posterior part. Teetli are cut in this edge to soften the skin 

after treatment. . 

Cat. No. 19894, U. S. N. M. Utes of northern Utah. Collected by Maj. J. W. PoweU. 
Fig. 3. Graining Tool. Made of the tibia of a horse. The column cut diagonally 
across the middle or hardest portion so as to furnish a square edge on the 
posterior side. Very fine tc3th have been made along this edge for grain- 
ing or softening the skin. 

Cat. No. 31316, U. S. N. M. Indians of the pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico. Collected by 
Dr. H. C. Yarrow and Lieut. George Wheeler, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 4. Graining Tool. Made of iron. An old-fashioned wagon skein, used on 
wooden axles before iron axles were invented. The upper or inner por- 
tion shows the holes for the rivets. Its edge is serrated for graining the 
hide. The buckskin thong is wrapped around tlie forearm and serves as 
a brace to hold the tool rigid. The shaft is covered with buckskin to 
protect the hand. 

Cat. No. 14196, U. S. N. M. Sioux Indians, Daliota. Collected by Edward Palmer. 



Report of National Museum, 1 889. — Mason. 



Plate XC. 






w\ 



'fefxi 



Beaming and Graining Tools. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XCI. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Of the antler of the elk, with a provision for the blade left in one 
of the prongs. In modern times steel takes the place of stone blades. 

Cat. No. 6337, U. S. N. M. Gros Ventres Indians, Dakota. Collected by Drs. Gray and 
Matthews, U. S. Army. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Handle of antler. Blade of steel fastened in place with buck- 
skin thong. 

Cat. No. 11100, U. S. N. M. Crow Indians, Montana. Collected by Col. James Steven- 
son. 



Reaoa of National Museum. 1 889.— Mason. 



Plate XCI. 





Adze-shaped Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XCII. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Adze type. Handle of the antler of the elk, the grip being the 
principal column, and the blade attached to a short section of a branch- 
ing prong. The blade of the modern tool is of iron, seized loosely with a 
thong of buckskin so as to be removed easily for sharpening. 
Cat. No. 11336, U. S. N. M. Piutes of Utah. Collected by Maj. J. W. Powell. 

Fig. 2. Scraper. Adze-shaped. Handle of wood cut from a natural knee-shaped 
stem. The blade of iron is lashed to the flat inner face of the handle, 
which is not shouldered to catch the blow. Length, Hi inches. 

Cat. No. 31317, U. S. N. M. Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Collected by Lieut. G. 
Wheeler, U. S. Army. 



Report of National Museum, 1889.— Mason. 



Plate XCIl. 




Adze-shaped Scrapers. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XCIII. 

Fig. 1. Scraper. Handle of wood; adze-shajjed. Blade of iron, like a ijlane bit. 
It is fitted to the handle by a wi-apping of buckskin and securely fastened 
by a rough seizing of buckskin thong and rag. As the blade must be 
removed constantly for sharpening, the lashing is very rudely done. 
Length, 12 inches. 

Cat. No. 6896, U. S. N. M. Comanche Indians of northern Texas. Collected by E. 
Palmer. 

Fig. 2 (o, 6, and e). Sceapek. Handle of wood. Blades of obsidian. The obsidian 
blades are inserted into holes, one on each side of the curious handle, and 
fastened by a black mastic made with the gum of the colqual. Handle, 
9 inches. 

Arusi Galla tribes in southern Shoa. Collected by Henry H. Giglioli and described 
in Internat. Archiv. fiir Ethnographie, Vol. ii, page 213. 



Report of National Museum, 1889— Mason. 



Plate XCIII. 





Adze-shaped Scrapers. 



.v. 










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